


Star Wars: Episode IX - Heirs to the Duel of the Fates

by WildcatPacer



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:48:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 27
Words: 47,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23446501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildcatPacer/pseuds/WildcatPacer
Summary: Supreme Leader Snoke is DEAD. The First Order is poised to achieve total galactic DOMINATION against the floundering Resistance. After the BATTLE OF CRAIT, General LEIA ORGANA has taken what remains of her meager forces into the hiding of deep space. Having lost the guidance of her Jedi Master, LUKE SKYWALKER and the sympathy of BEN SOLO, REY, the Last Jedi, mourns her true love...
Relationships: Finn/Original Character(s), Finn/Rey (Star Wars), Poe Dameron/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	1. Why, God, Why?

**Chapter 1: Why, God, Why?**

The _Millennium Falcon_ was little more than a half day's journey from Crait. Seated on a shipping container back in Han Solo's former quarters, Rey of Jakku cradled the two broken halves of the Skywalker lightsaber the way one might cradle a baby.

To anyone who happened to pass by, the sight of a forlorn Jedi mourning a dangerous weapon might have been construed as odd. Yet it was what this asundered weapon represented that caused Rey to wallow all crestfallen.

This lightsaber represented all that could have gone right which had now gone wrong. A beautiful and bright promise now destroyed. Snuffed out. Just as the last little glimmer of Ben Solo, the Light in Ben Solo, had been snuffed out by the dark, siren song of power.

The moment the last Prateorian Guard fell, Rey's heart had swelled and beat with ectopic happiness, as she breathlessly anticipated that the moment she had worked towards - a moment she had subconsciously yearned for her entire life - was now at hand. The moment where Ben Solo would turn, and he would take her hand... and with his acceptance, Rey would finally find belonging. Love. A family.

But had that vision materialized? No. Instead, Ben had offered her his hand, still gloved. And with it, power. Protection, cloaked in the seductive yet suffocating blanket of possession. The love of a possessive kind.

But Rey did not want _power_. She did not want _protection_. Those were the offerings of Kylo Ren. All Rey wanted was understanding. Companionship. And chief of all... love - the offering of the man she wanted: Ben Solo. All she wanted was Ben Solo's love.

It had still been the hardest thing she ever had to do, refusing him. Going in a desperate grapple for the lightsaber. Leaving him unconscious on the _Supremacy_ and fleeing from him. And closing the door of the Falcon on him, wishing that the Bond be shut forever? That had been the hardest thing to do of all.

In her heart of hearts, she did not want the Bond to be shut forever. But she felt that she had little choice, or else be tormented in pining anguish over what could have been for the rest of her life. Besides, Snoke - the madman who had tortured her precious Ben, the monster who had supposedly conceived their union - was dead. Should the strange gift not die with the giver? Its creator?

No...

All at once, Rey felt that rush, that warm, tingling sensation vibrating at the back of her spine. In her head. Accompanied by the squelching of time and space, bringing them together across lightyears.

Across the stars...

Rey's traitorous body shivered in yearning delight, even as her eyes went wide, panic overtaking her emotionally exhausted brain and she whimpered.

"No... please..." she trembled. He couldn't see her like this. She refused to see him as he now was - a twisted version of his true, beautiful self. A nefarious imposter of her true, lost love, who _looked_ like her Ben, at times _sounded_ like her Ben but still was not him, as though he had been warped in a funhouse mirror. Standing, taking a shaky breath, Rey tried to flatten her face into one of stone as she turned to face her denied future, which would now only ever be the most bittersweet cap on her tragic past.

The first thing she noticed, upon turning to face him, was that the mask was back. The kriffing mask was once more imprisioning his handsome face. She nearly wailed. She wanted to scream at the black, obsidian device of horror as though it was a living thing - how _dare_ it hold her sweet darling captive! She felt a twisted satisfaction at the red streaks of congealed adhesive which were now holding the monstrous thing together, but it was hollow. A Pyrrhic victory. A reminder that while the darkness could be beaten back, it could come back stronger than ever if merely left for dead rather than having the life squeezed out of it. And now, Rey wanted to squeeze the life out of that mask just as tightly as the darkness had squeezed the life out of her sweet Ben.

The creature, Kylo Ren, tilted its head as it studied her.

"Do you really wish to hurt me? To defend the honor of one who cannot be helped?"

She glared at him defiantly.

"Go ahead," he encouraged, whispering like a lover after emerging from the entanglement of sheets and descending from the heights of passion. "Give in to your anger. Unleash it on me."

She wanted to. Oh, how she wanted to. The urge to kill the mask and everything attached to it was almost as strong as the urge that compelled her to simply rip the mask off and run into his arms and hold him. She wanted to yell and scream at him and give him a real dressing down - for using her, for leading her on, for dangling out all her deepest desires like a sweet treat only to rip it away at the last moment. She wanted to spit. She wanted to damn him.

Rey didn't do any of that. Instead, big, fat tears leaked from her dark brown eyes and slid down her cheeks, before her face scrunched up as sharp, punctuated sobs bubbled up from where they had been lodged in her throat. She wept quietly, ignoring the dwindling strength inside of her - now scolding her for coming apart like a cheap deck of Sabaac cards... and all over a boy.

Gods, why was she so _pathetic_? What had Ben Solo done to her? Whatever beauty and happiness he had blessed her with, she bitterly wished it gone, as she had once wished to have their Bond die in its cradle. Out, out, damn spot! Ben Solo had made her so weak, and she all at once wanted to wring his neck... and kiss his lips.

Kylo's presence passed over her thoughts just then, feeling simultaneously like a fleeting shadow and a lover's caress. Clamping down on her inner musings too late, Rey felt herself oddly blush. Her sobs turned into sniffles, but the sheen of moisture was still unyielding in her eyes, which now flashed as anger finally deigned to make an appearance.

"You _lied_ to me!" Rey wept. "You promised me that once Snoke was gone, you would come away with me, back to the Light! You promised me!"

"I've never lied to you, Rey," and despite that blasted voice modulator that made his timbre send chills through her body, his tone was oddly soothing. "But I also made you no promises. You saw the vision that I would turn and foretold it to me so. I'm afraid you took whatever the Force promised you and projected it onto me."

Rey nearly had to stagger to bear the weight of the truth... that he was right. Kylo or Ben or whoever he was had never explicitly promised her _anything_. Each had simply communicated to one another their firm conviction that one would turn to the other... and come away from that tender moment alone in the elevator believing that they both were right. That they both could be right.

Uncomfortable truths, however, have a way of making a believer double down, and this Rey now did. "Well, then, you did the same thing! You projected onto me your belief that I would be the one to turn!"

"And imagined or not, that promise? You still broke it!" Kylo hurled.

Rey leaned back, stung, a fresh wave of tears coming. For a parsec, she reached out her hand, then retracted it back.

"Let me see your face," she pleaded in a whisper.

No response. He moved not a tick. Rey wrestled down a sob. "Ben," she whispered. " _Please_."

She feared that in saying his true name, she had pushed him too far. But like before in the elevator, something about her speaking his true name on her lips seemed to reach him. Slowly, Kylo reached up and unclipped his mask. He paused there for a moment, his hands hovering as they framed his face.

A tiny moan escaped Rey's lips. "Ben," she crooned. "Take it off. _Please_ take it off." Another tear slipped down her cheek.

There was a click and a hiss, as finally, the cursed thing came off.

Ben's chiseled, striking face appeared and Rey let out another moan, this one of relief. He simply stared at her, with those same hang-dog, sorrowful, heartbroken eyes from the hangar bay... and Rey felt her heart cleave in two anew.

She broke down once more.

"Why did you leave me?" she sobbed.

Ben reflected her own tears back at her. "Why did _you_ leave _me_?" he agonized. Never, not even in the throne room, had he sounded so vulnerable.

"You were going down a path I couldn't follow!" Rey blubbered. "You were becoming a person I didn't want!"

Ben's eyes flashed with rage just then, and the sudden change made Rey's voice trail off in a frightened gasp and whimper. "What you want is something - someone - that can never be! The man you wish to take as your lover is _dead_! Ben Solo is no more!"

Rey groaned melancholically, squeezing her eyes tight. She nearly put her hands over her ears, to block out the blasphemy, but refrained. "I refuse to believe that!"

"Believe it, silly girl."

"No!" Rey yelped. "My sweetheart is alive!" She opened her eyes, gazing at him with steadfast determination. "And I know he's in there somewhere."

Kylo sneered. "Then content yourself to be a widow before you could even be a wife! Ben Solo is DEAD!"

"NOO!" Rey screamed in frustrated rage. The entirety of Han Solo's chambers seemed to vibrate with the sound, the Force amplifying it as the energy field too howled in protest.

Rey finally sank to her knees, all screamed out. Weeping quietly, she hugged herself, bemoaning her fate. Their fate. Were she and Ben truly doomed? It would seem so.

She felt his presence, hovering closer but not wanting to come too within reach, and through the Force Rey felt a soothing balm of... concern. Sniffling, she turned away from the warmth.

"I should have known you could never be anything but a _monster_!" Rey whispered fiercely through her tears.

To her bitter satisfaction, and unlike on that island down by the water, when he had agreed with her assessment, Rey felt her words pierce Ben. Like she had shanked him with a lightsaber. The squelching sound could be heard once more, and when she next glanced up... Ben was gone.

Before she could seize on the crazy impulse to apologize.

Bowing her head, Rey wept.


	2. See You Around, Kid

**Chapter 2: See You Around, Kid**

The moment the connection was broken, Kylo stumbled back into the sterilized wall of the nondescript First Order corridor, panting and eyes wild with shock. Never before had Rey cut him to the quick so deeply - a habit she had maddeningly perfected over mere weeks. His grandfather's lightsaber, his birthright, flying into her hands rather than his? That had stung. Her calling him a monster, multiple times and with such vehemence? That, too, had stung, despite the facade of bravado he had placed up in agreeing with her assessment.

But this reversal of her convictions? That she had at any time thought to reconsider her appraisal of his inhumanity, only for her initial conviction to be confirmed and upheld... and all while she dissolved into tears over a person he could not be for her? Well. Kylo felt the shame and emotional agony inside him like a knife.

That knowledge that he had lost her forever, had lost any chance he might have had with her, festered inside of Kylo like a gaping gash. The echo of her words, darkening like the purpling flesh injured by a bruise, clung almost to his very skin as he stalked like a wounded animal back to his chambers. The bite of Rey's pronouncement indeed seemed to sit in the still-very uncomfortable knot in his side where the Wookie Chewbacca had fired a bowcaster bolt. In a small way, Kylo was grateful that Rey had entreated him to take the mask off, now hanging limply in the clenched fist at his side. If she hadn't, he would now be ripping it off in a hasty and desperate attempt to get the air that was rapidly eluding his lungs, no matter how deeper his breaths were taken. Just as desperately, he now dug at the dark shirt and cowl he was adorned with, feeling the frantic need for his body to get air also. He nearly ripped the fabric in his haste to part with it; the shirt and cowl clung too tight to his epidermis quite suddenly, the way clothes might if he were sopping wet. And yet both articles were bone-dry - caustic and itchy and Kylo had to tug with extra strength to get them over his head and loose. His chest heaved at the relief of no longer feeling so constrained, and he finally allowed himself to chance a good look at the scar on his stomach from where Chewbacca had struck him.

The wound had not healed at all well, and the ugliness of the scar reflected this. The porcelain skin just off his stomach proper was pink and mottled. Kylo remembered deliberately hitting the open wound whilst facing her and the traitor on Starkiller Base, convinced by Snoke that the pain - the act of leaning into it - would give him strength in the dark side. During the battle and its aftermath, Kylo had been unable to ascertain whether the practice of self-injury had had its desired effect, so if the wound had failed to heal correctly on its own, perhaps it was - in a way - his own damn fault.

Rey's words reverberated in his brain just then, as he stared down at the ugly flesh: _I should have known you could never be anything but a monster..._ He snarled at this, clenching his free hand into another fist, and deliberately struck the stomach wound hard. Fierce spasms licked through his insides and throughout his torso, acidicly mixing with the lingering emotional discomfort, and he howled in pain. Kylo's displeasure reeled to find something, anything to unleash its wrath on, and spying the mask, he hurled it into a corner in an absolutely spastic fit of rage.

 _Yes, it is the mask's fault_ , a voice in his head encouraged him. _After all, Rey doesn't like the mask_.

Kylo was no stranger to hearing voices in his head, but this voice wasn't conniving and malevolent like Snoke's. No, oddly enough, the voice he heard now sounded like _him_ , or at least what used to be him. Ben Solo - the voice of a carefree young man with no troubles and no impossible legacy on his shoulders. This voice had a schoolboy quality to it, teasing, the tone not unlike a friend needling someone over having a crush. _After all,_ _she_ _doesn't like the mask_.

Breathing hard, Kylo stalked to a small table just off his armoire dresser. Atop the table sat a large and locked safe, which he now opened. The hydraulics lifted the lid with a hiss, so that a blast of cold steam now emanated from the container. The artifact needed to remain frozen so as to be carefully preserved.

The charred, melted, concave mask of Darth Vader stared back at him.

Once upon a time, the face of his grandfather at his most glorious was soothing. But now, glaring down at the idol, Kylo felt nothing but resentment. How many years had he spent speaking to this inanimate object like a possessed madman, pleading with it to show him the power of the darkness? Of course, the mask never said anything back, so maybe he really was insane. And besides, the face of another had supplanted this one in bringing the most warmth and comfort to him. The face of that idol appeared in his mind now, with deep brown eyes... eyes that now sparkled as they smiled at him...

The silence in his chambers was oppressive, so much so that it practically rang in Kylo's ears. Face contorting in agony, cracking under the pressure of a bubbling cauldron of emotions, Kylo let the silence have it with a sharp and abrupt blast.

"YOU SAID YOU'D ALWAYS BE THERE FOR ME!" Nothing but a quiet as eerie as death answered him. "... but you're not." The last came out in a defeated groan, and he felt the humiliation of having to admit that he was beaten - _yet again_ \- deeply. And what was worse? He didn't know if he was yelling at Vader or Rey or Snoke or even a combination of all three. Kylo hung his head and for the first time since seeing her walk away from him on Crait, he wanted to cry.

"If you could just get a look at yourself..."

The voice that now chuckled at his back had most definitely _not_ originated in his head, nor had it ever been amongst the cacophony of voices regularly residing free of rent in his head. Oh, kriffing no...

Kylo wheeled around, and if he could have gotten a glance in the mirror, the look of horror now collapsing onto his face would have chilled his bones. Just as much as how the presence of this new intruder also made his blood run cold.

The blue apparition of his uncle stared back at him expectantly, with a cocked eyebrow and an even more cocksure smirk on his face.

"You... you... you're supposed to be DEAD!" Kylo yelped like a startled dog.

The damn smirk widened. "That I am." Luke even splayed out his arms in a kind of 'Ta-Da!' flourish; he looked _so_ pleased with himself. "I told you I would see you around, kid, and I meant it."

Kylo actually buried his head in his hands. Snoke's body was scarcely cold, his voice only just snuffed out, and now... "I am to be haunted by a gloating old coot like you?"

He felt Luke's mirth even as he desperately tried to shut his eyes against it. "We who have passed on into the Netherworld are called Force Ghosts for a reason, Ben. And ghosts haunt... if that is how you wish to view my appearing to you."

Kylo's head snapped up from his palms, eyes flashing. "That name no longer has any meaning for me!"

"It is the name of your true self! You've only forgotten!" The stupid smirk was back on his face, now with an air of nostalgic wistfulness to it, as if he had somehow heard those words before. Then Luke twisted the knife deeper. "Or maybe you don't like hearing it because it reminds you of _her._ Rey's the only one allowed to say your real name - is that it? I should feel so envious..."

"RRRRRRAHHHH!" The lightsaber flew into Kylo's palm like a limb magically being sewn back on. Igniting the blade of fire, he swung it as hard as he could, its arc possessing the barest minimum of control.

Lightning fast Jedi reflexes. He blocked it with his hand. The old fucker actually blocked the crackling plasma of an activated laser sword with his _bare hand_. Kylo wobbled through the sharply halted inertia of his swing. He gave the blade the slightest tug, but it wouldn't move from his uncle's grasp.

Kylo's mouth fell open in flabbergasted disbelief, just as it had on Crait upon realizing that he had only succeeded in slicing at empty air. A tiny bit of his brain not consumed by rage chided him for thinking that hacking at a ghost would actually work, but he paid it little heed. This man... this insufferable man... who was he? _What_ was he?

Luke's expression flip-flopped into a chiding frown right then, and in his tunnel vision, where another would have viewed the frown as admonishing, Kylo only saw it as ghoulish.

The younger man sneered, baring his teeth. "Oh, you are _so_ enjoying this, aren't you?"

In reply, Luke did something most unconscionable. He laughed in his nephew's face. The man positively _chortled_. He was even moved to wipe a jovial tear from his eye. "It is rather amusing..."

The fist holding Kylo's lightsaber slacked just a bit, enough for him to yank it out his uncle's grasp with a growl. When he wildly glanced back up, Luke was back to his admonishing ways, staring Kylo down as though he was a chastened child. Ben had seen that look before in his youth, and it summoned a whimpering whirlpool of inadequacy in him more instinctual than a Pavlovian response. His entire expression shattered, and no amount of red adhesive could put back together this second, invisible mask of self-confidence which had now abandoned him.

"What do you want from me?" Kylo stammered. "What must I do, Master, to be free of this pain?" He scolded himself too late for ever granting Luke with the respectful title of Master. And in referring to 'this pain,' he should have been more specific. _The pain of you returning from the dead to mock me_.

Kylo could will it, think it as much as he liked, but in reality, that was not the pain he spoke of. The pain most eating away at him like acid had been inflicted by someone who wasn't even in the room.

And most terrible of all, Luke damn well knew it.

_The pain of you leaving me... Why did you leave me?..._

"Get your head out from between your ass cheeks, for starters," Luke diagnosed crassly. "Then, take the reins of that Bond and go to her. Your wife needs you."

Kylo blinked, perplexed, even as goosebumps bubbled up on his flesh. "But I have no wife."

By now, Luke's smirk had become more aggravating than that of a creepy clown. "That's what _you_ think. The Force holds so much that you still do not know. My advice? Start reading. And remember these words: two that are one." He dared to wink. "See ya around, kid."

And by the time Kylo had lunged forward with a scream to wring the tottering old fool's neck, Luke Skywalker had vanished.


	3. The First Answers

**Chapter 3: The First Answers**

For many long moments after the ghost of his uncle had disappeared, Kylo stood hunched over in his rooms, panicked, running his fingers through his scalp so deep that it pinched. His brain was throbbing, Luke's parting words bombarding him like a sonic concussion.

_Your wife needs you._

_But I have no wife._

And something he had bellowed at Rey earlier: _Then content yourself to be a widow before you could even be a wife!_

Wife... when would he have ever taken the scavenger as his wife? Kylo didn't remember such a sacrament. There had not been a wedding ceremony. No vows or chapel or Mass. Even if there had been, even if that had been his desire, would Rey have had him? No, surely not!

Lifting his head from his hands, Kylo frowned, ruminating hard.

Wife... marriage... the Force Bond...

Wait a minute...

Crossing sharply to his desk, Kylo settled into the swiveling hoverchair and thumbed through his bookshelf. Ancient bindings on an unquantifiable number of subjects greeted his eager fingers.

Whenever he had a moment's peace from serving the dark side, and especially now that he was Supreme Leader, Kylo enjoyed contenting himself with voraciously reading anything he could get his hands on. He had devoured books and stories, texts and tomes, since he was a little boy. The words on the page contained the source of knowledge, and knowledge... that was the key to all, true power.

Two that are one... his photographic memory knew that he had seen the phrase before in one of these books. Almost as if it was a definition to a larger concept... but what?

Ah, here it was! Kylo plucked out a Jedi text that had originally been present at Skywalker's training temple. He hadn't cracked open this particular text in years - _Profound Phenomena in the Living Force_ \- but recalled studying it in his youth. Page after page he flipped, skimming line by line. Two that are one... two that are one...

Leafing back to the index, he scanned a finger down until he found the page number detailing Force Bonds. The Bond he shared with Rey had to be a clue to whatever gibberish Skywalker had been talking about.

Here. The book stated: " _A Force Bond is an intimate, but extremely rare connection between two Force users, created by the will of the Force itself._ "

One sentence in, and Kylo nearly threw the book across the room. Snoke had been a kriffing _liar_! He had never bridged his and Rey's minds in the first place - he had probably just sensed what the Force itself had already done, and in his haughty arrogance taken credit for it. Willing his breathing to slow and waiting for the haze of red to dissipate from behind his eyes, Kylo continued on to the next subsection, entitled Dyad.

Dyad...

" _Once every millennia, the Force and its will may transform and heighten the intimacy between two Force users so Bonded, creating a still rarer - but no less sacred - sociologically significant relationship known as a Dyad. In a Force Dyad, two souls are made to become one, and in so doing, are blessed as man and wife. The Force marries the Dyad and sanctifies their union in the Living Force, at its pleasure._ "

The book flopped into Kylo's lap as he sank back into his chair in utter shock. If Skywalker had sensed truly, his and Rey's Bond - already growing stronger, he could feel it - would only continue to deepen. The will of the Force itself had smiled down on Kylo and this young woman and, almost by fiat, declared he and Rey wed.

Kylo had to give the Force this much: it had a wickedly sick sense of humor. To think... his only love sprung from what should have been his only hate.

Now wait just a parsec - _love_? _Love_ Rey? Just because he was apparently, technically married to the woman didn't mean he was in love with her... did it? Back went Kylo's face into his hands.

Wherever the piece of shit was, old Uncle Luke was probably taking great pleasure out of this. Kylo wouldn't be surprised if the Jedi was in on the twisted little joke the Force had pulled.

Straightening and taking a deep, cleansing breath, Kylo leaned back into his easy chair, wanting to drown into the leather upholstery. OK. So apparently he was part of a Dyad, which made him husband to a woman who now probably wanted to, and likely eventually would, kill him. He had a wife, gallivanting across the galaxy with a misfit band of renegades. A band that included his mother... and her mother-in-law.

Taking all that in the aggregate... now what?

 _Go to her_ , his uncle had said. _Your wife needs you_.

How in the Seven Hells of Mustafar was he supposed to do that? The Bond had a mind of its own, as temperamental and volatile as the will of the Force which had created it. He supposed he could just wait until the Bond decided to stop acting like a coy child and open up so he could see her again. But once it did... what was he supposed to say about the Dyad? Even if he could get the words out before the connection broke off again or Rey otherwise refused to listen... would she believe him? Unlikely. Breakdown in communication or not, whether he had meant to or not, he had broken her trust in him. That trust wouldn't be built back up in a day, if at all.

But wasn't that the first building block in a marriage, even if it was entered into without one's knowledge? Trust? Ben had long studied his parents' own marriage, and found it lacking. Among other faults, the trust had been there, but not consistently. There was no question that his parents had trusted each other with their lives - they had fought through a galactic civil war together. Where the trust had broken down was that they had not trusted each other with _him_ , their one and only son. Some of that blame fell on Ben, for being a difficult child, prone to lashing out. But just as much blame fell on his parents for not having enough faith in each other to know what to do with him. What was best for him. It was the root of all those arguments, those shouting matches, he had tried to tune out through his bedroom door. And once that trust had broken down, Han and Leia had never really known how to build it back up, especially after Ben fell to Snoke.

Resolve suddenly steady, Kylo stood with purpose out of his chair. That would not be so for him... and his wife. He lingered on the word for a parsec, savoring it on his synapses, if not quite yet on his tongue. _Wife_. Rey, my wife. The qualifier seemed to blend with her name naturally, as if it had always been so. As if it had always been a foregone conclusion from the time that he was young.

There was a word for that - one he had found in the fairytale books his mother used to read to him as a child... _betrothed_.

If the Bond wasn't going to open up just yet, then he'd better not fritter away his time waiting for her to be brought to him. In the midst of leading a military regime, he would have to carefully prepare what he was going to say to her... and hope against hope that Rey would be of a mind to listen.

Kylo quickly donned his shirt and cowl, finding that they didn't feel so oppressive on his skin as before. Glancing back to the corner, he picked up the mask, not finding any significant damage. The red adhesive had done its job. Sliding it back on, he felt a strange apathy for the device. It didn't feel oppressive as his other clothes had been, not yet... but it still felt like an inconvenience. He tried not to dwell on what that meant.

He strode out into the hallways of the pristine Star Destroyers, patrolling the corridors to clear his head. As he went along, he mouthed some initial test runs of what he was going to say to his chosen bride, preparing himself that her bewitching face might appear to him at any moment. Stormtroopers wisely gave him a wide berth, and he appreciated the lack of disruption to his thoughts.

At least until, coming upon and nearly rounding a corner, he heard two voices waft back to him from up ahead:

"... I just finished analyzing the DNA sample we got from that Jedi girl."

 _Rey_. Kylo froze, melting himself into and blending in with the obsidian of the walls. Cocking his ear, he continued to eavesdrop. DNA sample? What DNA sample?

"When in the stars did you have the time to get the Jedi's DNA?" an officer wanted to know.

"We extracted it on Starkiller; she was in quarantine just long enough for us to get it. But she didn't stay long enough for us to analyze it. It was the Supreme Leader's orders." Kylo recognized the voice as belonging to one of his most competent officers, Admiral Puesey.

Kylo slumped his head back against the wall. Ah, yes. Now he remembered. Upon bringing Rey aboard Starkiller in his arms, he had ordered that a sample be taken of her DNA. From the moment he met her, her raw power in the Force had intrigued him. A wellspring of Force sensitivity talent like that didn't just fall out of the nebulas and land on the first desert urchin wandering the dunes of Jakku.

"She's _dangerous_ , Corporal," Puesey went on, his voice having significantly dropped. "The blood in her veins, she has more claim to the throne of the First Order, the throne of the Sith than Ren himself."

He nearly lost control right then, rounding the corner to Force choke the life out of his subordinate. Really, he would have expected better from a man of Puesey's character.

"Indeed, Admiral. How so?"

"She is rightfully the Empress. The granddaughter of Palpatine!"

Out-of-focus. Everything was spinning, and Kylo nearly teetered away from the wall on which he was leaning in his dizziness. He fought to cling to its surface, have the wall support his weight, lest he go collapsing to the ground. Tears pricked at his eyes, the salt clinging to the insides of his mask's visors and clouding his vision. It would be enough of a hassle to wrench his mask off just to wipe the moisture away, so the salty tears simply sat there, stinging his eyes. His knees buckled, but didn't give out all the way, and he braced himself against the wall for all he was worth, hardly hearing the clopping goose-steps of boots as Puesey and his comrade moved on.

His sweet young bride... born from the loins of evil just as he had been. It was another crushing weight added to all he still had yet to tell her.

But could he tell her this? Even less than learning that she was married to her sworn enemy, would Rey believe that she was descended from evil royalty. Not someone who was so good and pure and luminous just for the sake of it, who embraced the Light and basked in it.

Unfortunately, Kylo knew better than most that the brightest lights also cast the longest shadows. He would have to tell her, as much as he did not want to. It was his duty as a husband - _her_ husband, compelled all the more so by his quest for trust in his young marriage. It would break her heart, he knew. Kylo just hoped that when the time came, Rey would understand that it was the truth that was doing the breaking, not him.

Unbeknownst to the Supreme Leader, down the hallway which Puesey had just vacated and around the corner just beyond, another pair of ears had eavesdropped on the most scandalous secret in galactic history... and he reveled in it.

Neither man could have foretold that this secret would not be the last to have galaxy-wide consequences... nor, by war's end, would it be the most scandalous.


	4. New Ties That Bind

**Chapter 4: New Ties That Bind**

Rey knew not how long she crouched there in Han's room just after Ben disappeared, weeping and hugging herself. For the last however many hours, she had expended just as much mental energy trying to command the Bond back into life as she had weeping over another squandered opportunity - this one of her own making.

She had regretted the last words she had said to him - hurled in bitter anger - almost from the moment they left her lips. If she had had her wits about her rather than stubborn pride, she would have clasped her hands, remained on her knees and begged his forgiveness. Whether he would have accepted her contrition was another matter, and she feared how long she might have to wait before she could say that she was sorry.

The anger she had willed during their spat was already fading, wilting into a dull ache. It partially horrified, partially eased her that she could never stay mad at him for long. Did she forgive him for what he had done to her? No. But it was much harder to blame someone when you knew that there was blame to share. Did she hate him? Also no.

And _that_ is what terrified her. She wanted to hate him, stay angry at him and progress between them a bitter estrangement. But she just... couldn't. Maintaining either hate or anger, never mind both together, was downright exhausting. And enough had exhausted Rey these last several, whirlwind days without taking into account her bizarre relationship with the new Supreme Leader.

The Resistance was down to a handful of misfit humanoids, three droids and an oversized Wookie - all crammed onto a rickety ship that should have been impounded decades ago. Maybe a dozen souls in all had limped away from Crait, and one of those dozen was currently lying flat on her back in a coma. Rey had never been properly introduced to the technician girl, Rose, but she had seen how her dear friend Finn had hovered over her body. Looking on, Rey couldn't help but feel a little envious.

"Rey? Rey! Rey, where are you?!"

It was scary enough, knowing that merely thinking of Ben could sometimes - not always, but sometimes - will him into being. And although the person she willed into being with her thoughts now wasn't Ben, sensing him come near filled Rey with a terror over her present state. She hastily dabbed at her eyes, tried to stand up, but her legs would not obey her.

The turn of the knob. "Re -!"

Finn stopped mid-shout as he opened the door to find his best friend on her knees, folded into herself and her arms wrapped around her middle. Eyes twinging with concern, he helped gather her off the floor and taking her by the shoulders, gave her a little shake. "Rey, where have you been? Everyone's been looking for you!" He peered at her closer; he could clearly see that she had been crying. "Hey... are you all right?"

Her lip quivered for a beat, and then she lost it. Flinging her arms about his neck, she came apart in his embrace, sobbing with punctuated dry heaves into his vest. "Finn! Oh, Finn..."

She flushed her body against his, drawing herself closer, closer still. Finn took it in stride as he always did, holding her quietly and making himself as useful as he could by rubbing her back. His body heat exuded a warmth that couldn't be human. He smelled of woodsmoke - she wondered if he had recently been tending the _Falcon_ 's coaxium boiler. All of it totaled up to the unique senses that could only come from being with Finn - dearest, sweet Finn! In a matter of moments, Rey's sobs had died down into deep and even breathing, broken only by the occasional hiccup.

"Now..." She felt Finn's chest and vocal cords vibrate as his soothing baritone rumbled forth. Rey shivered in contentment. It reminded her of how, not too many hours ago, she had prepared to board the _Supremacy_ thinking she would never see him again, and the thought nearly made her collapse into a fresh round of tears. "What brought this on?"

Lifting her head from his chest, she peered up into his compassionate eyes, her own orbs still wet. Hastily wiping at them, she sniffled, "I feel like I've lost so much." And the loss she felt was expansive. Vast and nearly unquantifiable. A loss of childhood innocence. The loss brought on by death, watching the demise of first one father figure, then another. But the loss most raw of all was still, still, the loss of her Ben dearest.

Finn gazed down at her sympathetically. "Rey, I hear you and I am with you. We've all lost somebody today." Pain visited his expression, and Rey could hardly imagine what it must be like to lose something halfway, not knowing if that loss would be final, as Finn surely now felt about Rose.

Something about being in the arms of her best friend - one blessed with an incredibly understanding ear - made Rey want to spill her guts. "No, you don't understand - I've lost someone I love!"

As soon as she said it, her body stilled in amazement. She was stunned that the truth had been pulled from her so easily, before she could even come all the way to terms with it herself. Wait... _love_? Did she love Ben? To her even further shock, tampered by a serene kind of peace, Rey - no matter how long she delayed in silently posing a response to her own question - found herself answering... Yes. She did love Ben.

Finn was gazing at her rather intensely then, expectantly, waiting. Meeting his gaze, biting her lip, Rey hesitated. Could she tell him everything? No, no matter how much she trusted him, with her life and everything else. She recalled what she had said to him upon their reuniting on Starkiller Base, when he had asked her what had happened to her at the hands of Ren. _I can't explain it. And you wouldn't believe it..._

If she told Finn everything, he definitely wouldn't believe her now. And that pain would be just as agonizing, if not worse, than being separated from her lost love. At the same time, she had to tell somebody - if not the whole truth then at least a version of it. If she didn't, she would go mad. Rey, the Jedi madwoman... it was not a pretty picture, to say the least. Rey actually shuddered at it, despite the lingering warmth of Finn's arms.

Resting her hands on his forearms, Rey found herself talking into his chest as she worked through exactly what to say.

"I found someone..." she began.

"Luke Skywalker," Finn seized on excitedly.

"No, not Luke Skywalker. Someone... special." Pink tinged her cheeks. "And I wanted him to come away with me, but he..." Her throat choked up. "He couldn't do it. And now I'm _losing_ him!" A fresh batch of tears streaked down her cheeks, and she cried quietly, though briefer than before.

Finn was quiet for a time, his brow furrowed deep in thought. Rey could tell he was trying to analyze every bit of her cryptic words, mining for clues. Pursing his lips, he at last answered:

"OK. Let me get this straight: you wanted to take this guy away and be together all happy and free. Your sweetheart... didn't support you. And you've been hurting inside... ever since, right?" Something strangely reminiscent to contrition was lurking behind Finn's eyes. They seemed to be asking, _What went wrong, Rey? Let me fix it!_

Rey nodded glumly.

"Well, then, the way I see it, there is only one course of action: you have got to stop messing around and deal with the problem!"

She peered at him, not exactly following but still hanging on every word of his advice.

"You seem to have taken these feelings and bunched them up into a nut. What's got to happen now is the nut needs to be cracked open. And I'm not talking about one little chip at a time, but BAM! SMASH! Bits of emotion flying everywhere! Anger! Fear! Deep depression, in fact! You see what I'm saying?"

Rey didn't, but she could feel Finn's natural affinity for all the feelings he had just enumerated. They were swirling around his Force aura, in a potent combination of emotional TNT that reminded her painfully of Ben when he was mired in his persona of Kylo. Finn's Force essence brushed up against hers and she bristled at it, even as she felt the shock at realizing... her friend was Force sensitive. No matter if he was, Rey wasn't sure if Finn could safely train as a Jedi. Hell, she could hardly be deemed a Jedi herself, so why was she thinking about potential apprentices? Too much at one time, she told herself. She needed to take this one step after another and focus on what was at hand.

Throughout her inner monologue, Finn had been gazing at her rather intensely, waiting. "Well?"

"Well what?" Rey blinked.

"Aren't you going to crack open the nut now?" He seemed to be expecting it, for some reason.

She wasn't sure what he was getting at, his throwing around of metaphors notwithstanding. Blinking back tears, she shook her head. "I can't. Not yet."

Finn sighed, hanging his head. He almost looked... disappointed. "All right." He held out his hand. "Come on, Leia's about to make a speech; Poe's saved us seats..."

Smiling affectionately, Rey took his hand. "Thank you, Finny."

He blinked, smiling bemusedly. "What did you just call me?"

She turned red, grinning embarassedly. "Finny. My pet name for you."

Finn laughed heartily, squeezing her fingers. "I like it. Come on."

He guided her back to the hull of the Falcon. General Leia, Kaydel Kol Connix and the handful of other survivors were milling about, the aimlessness of emerging from the other side of trauma just beginning to dissipate. On a long and flat box sat Poe Dameron, who immediately stood upon seeing Finn and Rey, a hand jumping to his hair in a futile attempt to tame it. He immediately stood aside, gesturing like a gentleman for Rey to take his seat. Shyly looking askance at him, Rey accepted the chivalry, lowering herself onto the box. Immediately, she felt Poe sit close to her at her right, Finn at her left.

"Rey!" Poe's smile was dazzling. "What kept you? The General's about to speak..." His voice trailed off, as he observed how her eyes were bloodshot. "Hey... were you crying?" He glanced around her to Finn, silently probing for answers, but Finn just shook his head, asking for Poe to leave it alone.

Rey smiled weakly. "Yeah..." she admitted. "I just needed... to let a few things out."

"We all need to have a good cry sometimes, Rey," Poe smiled at her kindly. "Just remember that with every good cry should come a good shoulder to cry _on_." He laid a gentle hand on her knee.

Rey willed herself to look at him almost fully in the face, nodded and smiled weakly again. Poe's answering beam could have lit up all of Coruscant, and he patted her knee supportively, letting it linger there. Rey didn't mind it so much, the human touch, but all the same... she would have preferred to have Ben's hand resting lightly on her knee.

General Leia Organa stood up just then, the few surviving souls in the hull quieting down, breathlessly waiting for her to speak. Rey was struck by how the lines in the older woman's face seemed to have increased in mere hours, how her legs - bolstered by a cane - were even less sure of themselves. The former princess locked eyes with Rey just then, those gray orbs seeming to probe into the young Jedi's very soul. Rey gulped. Did Leia know? Know what had passed between her and her only begotten son? She must. Rey didn't know how she knew that, but Leia somehow knew everything.

"I may have told you before that we have everything we need right here for a Rebellion," Leia began, her eyes not leaving Rey's. The hope, though dimmer, still flared in the General's eyes. "But the reality is we need more fighters and transports. And one of our own is in critical condition." Everyone glanced back over their shoulders and across the room, to where Rose was still lying unresponsive on the one cot, built into the _Falcon_ 's wall. The winces were uniform.

"However," Leia continued. "I have a plan."

"I knew it!" Poe crowed, leaping up.

"Sit down, fool! Let the lady speak." But Finn's eyes were twinkling.

Leia's laughter rumbled low. "I have asked Captain Snap Wexley and Chewbacca to plot a course for Canto Bight. There is an old friend there who may be our benefactor."

Now, it was Finn's turn to leap up out of his seat. Except his face was now ghostly white.

"Canto Bight? Oh, no, no, no - we just came from there! And need I remind you, it was a bust! Take us back anywhere else - hell, I'll go back to Jakku before I ever go back to Canto Bight!"

Poe and Rey shared a snicker at this. Finn was rather open in his opinions about Rey's homeworld.

"I understand your concerns, Mr. Finn," Leia conceded. "But I have known our contact for many years and - outside of one time - have found him to be trustworthy."

" _Outside of one time?_ " Finn repeated bewilderingly. He threw up his hands. "We're all gonna die!"

"Finny!" Rey hissed pleadingly. "Sit down and be quiet!" He reluctantly sat.

Leia's mind was made up. "We should reach Cantonica within the next standard day. Dismissed... and may the Force be with us."

* * *

Canto Bight was impossibly glitzy and beautiful, Rey noted, as the _Falcon_ touched down in a hangar on the outskirts of the coastal city.

The last remnants of the Resistance covertly slipped past the city's walls, maneuvering through the cobblestone streets and making sure that Leia and Rey in particular were well concealed. At last, Poe led the band up to the rooftop of one of the finest high rises in all of Canto Bight, where an aging, dark-skinned man in a purple and yellow ensemble awaited them.

Throwing back her hood, Leia tottered over to him.

"Leia!" Lando Calrissian greeted her with a bow, kissing her hand. "Fetching as ever!"

"Oh, stop it, you big lug!" Leia chortled. She gestured behind her to her ragtag crew. "We need the best lodgings, transports and credits your influence can buy."

Scanning them all, Lando's gaze fell to Rey, who by now had removed her hood. Grinning like a lothcat, Lando crossed to her, appraising. "And who is this young flower?"

"Rey of Jakku, Jedi Knight," Poe piped up, smiling at Rey with unabashed admiration.

Lando's grin widened. "Enchanté, my lady." He raised her hand and kissed it, Rey turning bright red.

Quite suddenly, she felt her spine tingle again, except the squelching of time and space did not follow. Nevertheless, although she could not see him, Rey still knew Ben was there. His thoughts, appearing in her head, were laser-focused on Lando - and those thoughts were _livid_.

Lando turned back to Leia. "I have arranged a ball for you all featuring big money donors. Believe it or not, there are elites who turn up their noses at profiteering off the First Order's war machine. They're itching to stick it to Ren!"

A cold flash of fear, sharp as a wind chill, overtook Rey's body just then. Noticing, Poe frowned.

"You OK?"

"Yeah," Rey lied. "Just nippy up here."

"Here, take my coat!" And Poe stole it over her shoulders before she could protest.

Leia was now dealing out keycards to her followers. "Room numbers are on the front. We will be harbored here. The ball is in the main parlor downstairs this evening; servants will bring you finer clothing. Dismissed."

Rey wandered back to the elevators slowly, remembering just in the nick of time to return Poe's jacket. He tried not to hear of it, but she insisted she was fine.

Finding and retreating to the privacy of her rooms, Rey took in the extravagant decor in wonder. No one on Jakku - not even a fat cat like Unkar Plutt - would have ever come close to seeing riches like this.

Suddenly, the temperature in the room seemed to drop. There again was the tingle at her spine, this time followed by the squelching of time and space. Rey whirled around... and there he stood.

Her eyes went wide. "Ben?"


	5. What Married People Do

**Chapter 5: What Married People Do**

"Ben?"

He was still wearing that infernal mask, and Rey couldn't help but notice once again that the act of wearing it ironically made him appear like a curious child. Perhaps it was something in the way the device tilted along with his head as he studied her, taking her in as one might a toy or a new sight of nature.

"Did my uncle greet you lavishly?" Whatever had been off with his voice modulator had either been fixed, or he had gotten a hold of his tone since the last time they met. The Kylo in his delivery was back.

Rey stiffened. "Don't you know?" she replied coolly. "You were there, in some form!"

The mask obfuscated whatever reaction he might have had to that. In any case, he moved quickly to change the subject.

"He's an old goat, just like Skywalker and Solo. But, no matter." He drifted closer. "There is something really important I have to tell you!"

Rey bristled, frowning hard. "What makes you think I want to listen to anything you have to say?"

Kylo breathed once deeply. For once in his life, he could not lose his temper - it would push her father away from him than she already was. He decided to go for a self-deprecating approach. "Because it will enlighten you as to why you are cursed to look upon a wretched creature like me."

Rey blinked at this, and her expression softened, thrown. Something about his tone had definitely changed, so that he sounded almost like her Ben again, and it was the shift in this tone that compelled her to listen.

Having her at his attention, Kylo took a deep breath. Suddenly he realized that all the practicing these hours and days had prepared him not a lick for how he could possibly say what must be said. How could anyone possibly deliver news like this? _Hey, you know that Force Bond we've got going on? Well, funny story - it thinks we should hook up!_ He shook his head to clear it, the mask wobbling back and forth.

"In its... infinite wisdom, the Force has seen it fit to marry us."

Encouragingly, he hadn't expected her to take him so seriously from the outset, for all the color now drained from Rey's face. All the same, Kylo's heart howled. He should have known that this was a fate she would never accept.

For Rey's part, her heart ceased to beat. Her beautiful brown eyes bulged. "Marriage?" Her voice was but a whisper.

Kylo dipped his head deferentially. "Congratulations, my dear. You've got your wish. The Force has decreed that Ben Solo shall be your husband."

Silence reigned for a long moment, and Rey stood very still. Through the Bond, Ben could sense her thoughts whirring, but she didn't remain on one long enough for him to make any kind of sense of what she was thinking. Horror, disbelief and a strange kind of pleasure were jockeying for dominance in her head.

Finally, Rey breathed in deep through her nose, centering herself. Opening her eyes, she stared at Kylo squarely.

"Then have the Force bring him before me. For you - this man visiting me now... that's not my husband."

He froze, a downright unnatural delight coursing through his veins, then amusement over how she too was speaking in the third person. It was as if she really did think of Kylo and Ben as two separate people. However, this revelation was quickly replaced by mortification as he realized... Oh, Sithspit!

He knew what she wanted. She didn't even have to ask. It was almost comical, how he couldn't unfasten the mask fast enough, cast it to the floor. The gloves on his hands quickly followed, and now, metaphorically stripped naked, Ben allowed himself to look upon her.

Such a glorious sight he had never before seen in all his living life. A nearly blinding light had appeared in Rey's eyes, brightening with each new flare of happiness. And there - the image he had seen in his mind once... of her smiling at him. Smiling _for_ him.

"There you are," she cooed.

Ben couldn't help it. He came quite close, drinking her in as part of a hopeless attempt to memorize every inch of her captivating face. Like back in the hut, he tremblingly extended his hand. Smiling shyly, Rey took it.

"How can this be?" she murmured, gazing into his eyes. And with that, Ben knew that she was ready to listen. It was more than he could have ever hoped for.

"It's called a Force Dyad, seen but once every millennium. Two that are one." He faltered, biting his teeth together as he often did when working through what to say. "Essentially, the Force smiles down on a couple who have been Bonded and deepens the connection, taking their souls and making them become one. In so doing, the Bonded Force-users are blessed and are - for all intents and purposes - spiritually married. Proclaimed as man and wife."

Rey bit her lip at this, like she was trying to hide a smile. Wait... was she blushing?

"Do you want to be?" Ben queried, studying her.

"Do I want to be what?" Her echo beheld a dreamy quality.

"Do you want to be married?" Ben clarified.

Rey's cheeks turned even more pink, her eyes drifting down to observe her fingers playing absently with his. Now that she wrapped her head around it... Ben Solo, her husband. She rather liked the idea. In fact, internally, she was giddy over it, for it gave her hope that the vision she had seen in that hut might still yet come to pass. "I don't necessarily mind it," she murmured at last. "I think I would feel better about it if I knew what... our union entails. I've... never been married before."

Ben smiled, and Rey was struck by how much she _adored_ his smile. It was a real, genuine, her Ben smile. "Neither have I."

She giggled. "I've never even known anybody who's ever been married!" It was true, Jakku didn't exactly scream Destination Wedding. Of the few girls she had known on her homeworld, most of them had done things out of order - get pregnant out of wedlock, then raise the child alone without the father. Often, the child didn't make it past a few years. Teenage pregnancy and motherhood in such inhospitable terrain was unforgiving, which is why Rey had never even entertained romance or being with a man... until now.

Rey took Ben's other hand, squeezing it tightly and bringing their joined digits up to hover between them. She dared to peer up at him, suddenly feeling terribly shy.

"What do married people do? What do they say?" Her voice was impossibly small. Ben didn't answer at first, and she winced at her own intellectual impotence. He must think the Force had married him to a dullard. An unsophisticated scavenger from a desert world.

Instead, it was Ben's turn to flush red. She could tell, from the lightest caress of his thoughts, that he passed no judgment on her ignorance over matrimony. He seemed unsure how exactly to put what he said next, and Rey found his awkwardness rather adorable.

"Well..." he began. "Most married people do... they do..." he stammered, halted, then tried again. He stepped one more pace in, so that he was now directly in front of Rey. The lids of her eyes grew heavy, as she flitted her stare to his own irises, then his lips. "Most people who are married... they kiss each other." Ben's voice had grown so soft, she could barely hear it.

Rey could count all the freckles on his nose as Ben dipped his head. His silky black hair fell into his eyes as he leaned in close. Another inch or two and...

"Wait." She nearly sounded hoarse.

To his credit, Ben paused like a gentleman. "You don't want..."

"No!" Rey yelped. "I do. I do. But... I don't want our first kiss to be when you're... all at once here and not here. I want to taste your lips truly."

He knew what she was getting at with that. If they were going to have their first kiss, Rey wanted her husband to be physically present, and not just through the Bond. What that implied about Rey's ultimate designs was too heavy and painful to contemplate. For just a moment, the poison that was Kylo's persona hissed in his mind, feeling threatened, but Ben batted it away. This wasn't about Rey's designs. This was about the Force's grand designs. What it destined for them in joining them together in the sacrament of holy matrimony.

For her part, Rey hoped that she had not pushed Ben too far in a direction that he had made very clear he didn't want to go. She waited for the explosion of rage... and to her relief, it didn't come.

"What else do married people do?" Some strength had returned to her voice, but not much. She still felt lightheaded with him standing so impossibly close.

Ben's eyes smoldered. "It is... tradition for a man and his wife to lie together and... make love."

Rey's eyes went wide as saucers. She had heard the phrase before, mostly eavesdropped from older women in the Niima Outpost market over a bottle of alcohol. Techniques that were used while tangled in the embrace of a partner and cloaked in the dead of night. She gulped.

"I don't know how to love that way." Back came the whispering again, her voice raspy and croaking.

Ben just smiled that magnificent, kind smile. A paw of a hand reached up, to cradle her cheek and eyes fluttering shut, Rey leaned into the touch with a blissful sigh.

"Someday... I can teach you... if you wish." Ben was positively breathless.

She nodded almost involuntarily, slack-jawed and his heart leapt. He could only hope that, on that happy day... er, night... he would know what he was doing himself. Contrary to popular belief, Ben was still virgin. And right now, he was happy to remain so, and wait for her. There was no one he would rather make tender love to than her. No one but Rey, his wife dearest.

The setting sun sent a fireball of light in through the high windows at Rey's back, bathing her and her lover nearly in fire. His hand was still resting on her cheek, and Rey's own hand had crept up to curl around his wrist. Turning her face deeper into his touch, Rey dared to softly press her lips into his palm. She felt him freeze, still as stone, his Force essence a conduit of thrilling disbelief.

"I have to go soon," and Rey almost moaned with regret. "There's a ball tonight." As soon as she said it, she second-guessed herself over whether she had revealed too much. Ben would think the information as nothing of consequence to him... but Kylo... Kylo could do with it what he wished.

"Dance well, and make merry," Ben entreated. The Kylo in him was salivating like a ravenous hyena, and he wrestled fiercely to beat it back, and all its questions. _A ball? Where? Her Resistance friends must be with her. Are they being bankrolled?_ Well, if Lando kriffing Calrissian was anywhere in the vicinity, there likely was help on the way in terms of the war effort. Ben ached as he desperately moved to file all of that away for later. He wanted to stay here, in Rey's warmth, just a moment longer.

But the Force had other plans. When he opened his eyes, Rey and the hotel room were gone. The only sign that they had even spoken were his mask and gloves, now lying heaped on the floor of his chambers on board the Star Destroyer.

* * *

The servant finally delivered a dress to Rey's chambers. The fabric was soft velvet, and foresty green in color. It hung long over Rey's bony frame.

She was not deserving of such fineries, she felt, swishing her reflection in the mirror this way and that. After attempting to braid her hair back up into her favorite three buns, she decided to leave it down, hanging low over her back. The style reminded her of happier times, with Ben... and teased of more happy times with him to come. Rey knew she was not the same girl as she had been fleeing Maz Kanata's castle, and felt that everything about her should reflect this. No, there would be not even a regression in hair style. Besides, she sensed that Ben seemed to prefer her hair down.

Upon descending the stairs into the ballroom, Rey was flustered by how all the guests seemed to stop and stare. Never before had she warranted such attention, and she was grateful for her presence of mind to holster her lightsaber in the garter at her thigh.

Finn, sharp in a tuxedo, greeted her warmly on the floor. He was followed quickly by Poe - dashing in a three-piece suit, and eyeing her very appreciatively. He scarcely waited a parsec before asking Rey for a dance.

Her cheeks coming aflame, Rey stammered, "I... I don't really know how to dance..."

"That's OK! I'll teach you!" She had to admire the man's exuberance as he proudly led her out onto the floor. Her stomach tightened when the first song was a slow waltz and Poe pulled her close. His hips were flush against hers, and there was something almost sultry about the way he led her through the steps. As though this wasn't just a dance... it was a conversation.

Not being much of a conversationalist, Rey didn't know how to speak this language Poe was showing her. If he noticed, he didn't let on, his sparkling eyes only for her. When she draped her arm further across his back so that her fingers glided along the ridge of his shoulder, Poe looked positively delighted.

They ended the dance at last, flushed and red-faced. Rey found herself laughing, even if some of that merriment was to compensate for the heels now digging into her aching feet. She started when she felt Poe take her hand, his expression positively bashful.

"Rey? Can I talk with you in private?"

She felt warm all over. "Yeah," she smiled. His pleased grin was dazzling.

Poe guided her off the dance floor and out onto a secluded balcony. Dusk had by now given way to deep night. Only a scant few stars and distant worlds were visible against the bright lights of the city.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Rey breathed. She wished she had a fan to fan herself.

"Lovely. Just lovely." But Poe wasn't looking out at the night. He was fixated on her.

Rey looked askance at him, and underneath the intensity of his gaze, she felt herself squirm. Only one other man had ever looked at her like that, or at least anything close to it - even if, granted, she was still a novice in the deeper hidden meanings of body language.

She turned to face him. "Poe, I -"

She didn't have a chance to finish. Poe's lips were suddenly on hers, slanting, and her eyes went wide. She had no idea what to do, her entire body locked up, frozen. Thankfully, Poe bailed her out for trying, drawing away after just a moment. He beamed adoringly, eyes searching, looking like a lovestruck puppy.

Rey's flushed lips had unhinged in utter shock. She simply stood there, blinking, barely able to let out a shuddering breath.

"Poe..."

"Yeah?" Something husky had come over his voice, his expression completely radiant, as he dove back in for another kiss...

Rey's spine tingled and she panicked, twisting away at the last second before their lips could touch.

"BEN!" she blasted abruptly, so loudly that she nearly yelled it directly in Poe's face. She probably blasted his eardrum, with how sharply he now leaned away. Her lip trembled. "I'm in love with Ben."

Poe stared at her. "Ben? Who's Ben?" She could feel the jealousy rippling off his Force essence in waves.

Rey didn't answer, glancing down at the ground and back up at him.

Poe Dameron was incredibly handsome, there was no question of that. He'd been generous and kind to her. The stories about him that Finn had told her definitely bore themselves out.

But... beyond that, Poe didn't possess much depth. He didn't inspire in her a visceral reaction, an almost magnetic pull to remain in his presence the way that Ben did. He didn't understand her the way that Ben did. The pilot's infatuation with her was that of a pretty face attracted to another pretty face... and seeming to expect that, naturally, pretty faces belonged together.

And while Rey was flattered - she certainly had never considered herself pretty - and capturing the attentions of a brave and dashing fellow gave a much-needed boost to her self-esteem, the facts still remained. She could never betray Ben like this, in returning Poe's kiss. She wouldn't dare.

So it was that Rey gulped, her eyes deeply apologetic as she got out in a soft whisper, "I'm married."

She watched Poe's luminous orbs widen, the hurt settle into his face - a hurt that only came from feeling like you had been used. His expression so tore at Rey, in fact, that she wanted to cry.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered.

Poe didn't reply, except to mumble, "Thank you for the dance." And he stalked off the terrace, presumably to find Finn, as Rey dropped her head into her hand and wept.

* * *

The weeping hadn't abated even after Rey slipped away from the ball hours early, retreating like a hunted animal back into the safety of its habitat - which in her case, was her spacious room. She hardly had the energy to get out of her dress, so she simply lay in it, flat on her back on the bed and staring up at the ceiling through filmy eyes. With any luck, she would cry herself to sleep before Finn came up to rest, banging on her door and demanding answers. No doubt a jilted Poe had run right to his buddy and spilled her dirty little secret regarding her very-much active marital status.

She hoped that it was a time before she saw the pilot again, and she hoped that when she did, things would not remain tense and awkward between them and they could conceivably move on from a misconstrued kiss and become friends.

And then there had been the tingle at her spine - and it wasn't because Poe Dameron was a fine kisser. The same tingle that crept up the small of her back now, followed by the all-too-familiar squelching.

"I'm really not in the mood to talk," Rey sniffled, not moving her eyes from the ceiling fan.

"Too bad." She was startled to hear that it was her Ben's voice, unaltered by the voice modulator of that godforsaken mask. Daring to cast her eyes to his, Rey realized she would have for once preferred it if his mask was on.

Her husband's voice, and demeanor, were positively _steaming_. It would seem that Kylo could come out to play even when the mask wasn't around. And the rage roiling from her lover now was absolutely terrifying.

It was hardly any comfort to know that for the moment, Ben's rage wasn't directed at her, at first. He paced like a caged tiger around the hotel suite, cursing Poe Dameron up and down for his temerity. "Insolent _boy_ , this slave of fashion, basking in your glory! Ignorant _fool_ , this brave young suitor, sharing in my triumph!"

Ordinarily, Rey would have been pleased at her husband defending her honor, demonstrating his love for her in this way. Except this was Kylo's version of love now talking - the possessive version.

But didn't Ben or Kylo or whoever he was have the right to be a little possessive, right about now? The Bond had been so perversely fortuitous in its timing, it had allowed Ben to walk in on another man making a move on his wife. Any husband would be enraged by that, and rightly so.

As for Ben, his blood-red eyes were now placing a hundred invisible targets at Poe Dameron's back. He had always hated the smart-aleck bastard who allowed the droid to get away with the map to Skywalker. The pilot was so vapid and arrogant, somehow thinking he was Maker's gift to all creation and therefore entitled to all good things. The love of Ben's mother. The love of Ben's _wife_. All while floating through life thinking that any problem could be solved by blowing shit up in an X-wing. He was naive, vain... and phony in the worst way. Ben had always hated people like that, and never more so than now.

Rey slowly rose from the bed, floating close to him, her face broken and deeply regretful. "Husband, my soul was weak - forgive me. Enter at last, my love." Her trembling hands steeled themselves enough to reach up and gently frame his face. Her gentle touch worked wonders in getting him to place his breathing in check, and at least stop prowling about. The muscles in his face stubbornly refused to ease, but Rey could sense that his mind was.

"Ben..." The muscles in his jaw slacked just a bit, and she held his eyes. "There is nothing going on between me and Poe. _Nothing_. He was just... reading into something that wasn't there."

He glowered. "You shouldn't have led him on."

"I didn't know that I _was_!" Rey cried out. "You remember - I'm new to romance, just as much as you."

It occurred to her in that moment that she wasn't sure just what Ben saw, or how much he saw. Thinking it might clear the murky air, she gently placed a hand at the side of Ben's temple, transmitting into his brain her memory of events, from the end of the dance all the way through Poe slinking away.

"No more! I wish to see no more!"

Rey pulled back. Her husband was back to breathing hard, but encouragingly, his facial muscles finally seemed to be calming. He was peering at her searchingly.

"He caught you by surprise, the slick fucker." Rey couldn't help but crack a smile at his words, vulgar as they were. Ben shook his head. "Did no one teach the man social cues?" Now a giggle bubbled up from her. Clearly, her husband did not like Poe Dameron much. Her laughter trailed off when she noticed Ben was studying her again.

"And when he tried it again, you moved away." He sounded almost proud of her, and Rey finally allowed herself to release the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. So he understood. She cupped his face again, caught his eyes and held them.

"I swear on our Dyad, I would _never_ betray you... or our marriage. I would never be unfaithful - may I surely die first!" Passionately she made the vow.

Ben was about to point out that Rey actually had betrayed him by leaving him on the _Supremacy_... but for the first time, the voice of Kylo in his head did not succeed in getting him to impulsively say his words out loud, as it usually did. Maker, he really was going batty, if he kept separating out himself from Kylo as though each was a split personality.

And with that, Ben achieved broader clarity. He had been right in his goal to have Rey once again place her trust in him... but he also realized that he needed to place his trust in her as well. Trust went both ways - a marriage could not survive without it. It was the institution's most absolute foundation.

Taking both of his hands in hers, Rey slowly led Ben back towards the edge of the bed and eased herself onto it. Her eyes were nervous, like those of a small child.

"Will you just... lie here and hold me, please?"

And placing the operative emphasis on the word _just_ , Ben acquiesced, gentlemanly deciding that nothing would happen further unless Rey expressly wanted it to. So thinking, he lowered himself at her side. She curled into his broad, muscular chest and snuggled into their better half like this, husband and wife fell asleep.


	6. Blagg and Bliss

**Chapter 6: Blagg and Bliss**

Rey was disappointed when she woke up the next morning to find Ben's side of the bed empty; the Bond must have severed some time during the night. Her green dress was now fairly ruined, creased after having been slept in, and she peeled it off to step in the fresher.

The warmth of the running water allowed the Jedi to clear her head, better make peace with what had occurred the night before. She could feel nothing but pride over how Ben had pulled himself together and allowed her to explain. That wasn't something that Kylo would have done, and she was hardly aware of how she was referring to the Supreme Leader and her husband as two separate people anymore.

It was only as she was getting dressed in her grey tunic and pants that she realized she would have to face certain people when she went downstairs. Things would no doubt be awkward with Poe, but that was unavoidable. He would have to toughen up and take her rejection like a man, and consider himself so fortunate that he had not been on the business end of her staff, as plenty of men on Jakku had been before him.

As to what she would find with Finn, that was a toss-up. Her best friend always showed deep concern for her, but in that, Rey never knew whether she was going to get a litany of questions or the granting of needed space. Add to that the whole dynamic of this being a matter between her and Poe - the two most important people in Finn's life. Would he feel the need to mediate? Try to make the best peace? Worse still, would he sympathize more with Poe as a man? Rey honestly wasn't sure what she would receive upon arriving for breakfast downstairs.

Leia and her Resistance faithful were talking and laughing around the pushed-together tables. Poe was at one head, his eyes finding and tracking Rey as she entered. The Jedi tried not to glance at him, except to notice the sulking pain in his irises, as though her refusal of his advances had given him a really bad hangover. She made sure to sit as far away from him as she could. The more time apart they experienced, the better.

When Finn plopped down into the chair immediately next to her, Rey tensed, anticipating the probability of the coming barrage. And come it did.

"You're married?! Why didn't you tell us? And how does that factor into the whole sweetheart thing? Where is he? Can we meet him?" Her Stormtrooper friend sounded oddly jovial, like this was a happy surprise. Rey caught a flash of Poe watching her and Finn together, his eyes narrowing.

"Finny, will you keep it down?"

"What, so no one else knows yet?"

"Precisely," Rey got out through tight teeth. She sighed. "We married in secret. It can't be public knowledge yet." In a way, that was the truth... from a certain point of view.

Finn's eyebrows ruffled, but he nodded. "I'll... make sure... other third parties know that." He needn't further read between the lines, and Rey smiled at Finn gratefully.

"Thank you."

Leia mercifully banged her cane to get their attention. "General Calrissian says the... packages will be ready to move early this evening." Everyone knew that by 'packages' she meant 'transports'. "In the meantime, you are free to explore the city, but keep your faces concealed. Dismissed."

Rey stood up from the table hurriedly. "Finn, come on." Taking him by the arm, she all but ran them both out of the high-rise and out into the bustling thoroughfares. She only spotted Poe once over her retreating back, looking like he wanted to follow them, and they thankfully lost him in the crowd. It was better for her and the pilot both this way. She didn't know whether she could keep the avoidance up come the evening, but that bridge would be crossed when she came to it.

Keeping their hoods over their faces, their fingers brushing against each other, Finn and Rey roamed the streets of Canto Bight.

"So... Poe's really that bad a kisser, huh?"

Rey didn't look at him, craning her head up over the throng of the crowd to see. "Who wants to know?"

A tug on her hand made her spin around and look Finn in the face, to see that he was cocking an eyebrow at her. Rey made herself glare at him.

"No. It's just I'm already spoken for." And turning on her heel, she flounced away, letting Finn decide whether he wanted to keep up.

He did, and presently, they came under the looming shadow of an arena. Finn peered up at it warily.

"Never thought I'd be back within a hundred lightyears of this place," he grumbled, antsy.

"Why? What's wrong with it?" Rey glanced to her friend, concern in her eyes.

"It's a racetrack. For the fathiers. It's a gambling hotspot in this here town. Rose and I were detained there after being arrested at the casino cross the street, just there." Finn pointed down the way. The casino was empty now at this time of morning, except for the lone bouncer guarding the place.

The cobblestones rumbled at their feet to announce the stampeding approach of hooves from just inside, followed by a crescendoing wave of cheers. Rey winced. Running animals ragged for sport and the offchance of riches... suddenly, she didn't find Canto Bight so glitzy and wonderful anymore. She felt Finn's eyes on her, empathizing.

"Rosie hates it too. She never seemed proud to be from here."

Rey blinked. "This is her homeworld?"

Finn nodded. Then, glancing past her, he spotted a white Stormtrooper patrolling on the sidewalk across the way. The visor wasn't looking in their direction, but Finn still felt squeamish. He grabbed Rey's hand.

"Come on. Stay low." They ducked into the throng of people streaming into the racetrack. The crush of bodies was nearly overwhelming the ticket takers and the two young people took advantage of this by limboing under the turnstiles. Rey supposed she could have used a Jedi mind trick if she had no other recourse, but she figured she should only use her Force powers when she absolutely had to.

The tunnel opened up into the arena proper, Rey and Finn emerging onto the sidelines along the racetrack. The Jedi observed quadrupeds thundering around and around in a circle, kicking up dust. In the stands above, people in suits and wearing fine jewelry were tossing around coins and credits wantonly, as though the stuff was as abundant as water. Meanwhile, janitors and stablehands were working in the shadows far below, sometimes wearing clothes little better than sackcloth and toiling away just to get by.

Rey knew the feeling - intimately - and she found herself bitterly glowering at the disparity between the haves and the have nots. The fathiers galloped by them going into another turn and as the hoofbeats faded, a sudden CRACK could be heard, followed by shouting.

"GET THAT BRIDLE ON NOW, YOU SLOW BRAT! THIS BEAST'S IN THE NEXT HEAT!"

Finn elbowed Rey gently in the arm, nodding. "Look yonder."

Rey followed his gaze. At the yawning mouth of one tunnel, about a quarter of a way around the arena from where they were standing, a loping alien was pushing a young stable boy to the ground. Between them, a newly bridled fathier was nickering and rearing back on its hind legs.

Rey's eyes narrowed as she took in the boy. Even as he was flat on his back, he glared up at his supervisor defiantly. The fierceness did not remain in his eyes for long though, as the alien (who reminded Rey bitterly of Unkar Plutt) activated a taser and reared it back threateningly.

"STOP!" Rey called out, but the din drowned her out. So she pelted forward towards the commotion.

"Rey!" Finn yelped, but he had little choice except to chase her down.

It was surreally effortless, how Rey threw up her hand upon closing in on the alien and stablehand. The taskmaster barely had a chance to look up at her, brow furrowing in confusion, before the Force was lifting him off the ground.

Rey's face twisted into an ugly snarl, and she tightened her fist, crushing against the creature's windpipe. The alien clawed at his throat, its lumpy and tan skin rapidly turning purple. Little piggy eyes bugged out and he started to squeak.

Rey sadistically flashed him a truly vile sneer and twisted her wrist. There was a CRACK similar in tone to an old space rifle being fired as the alien's neck was severed and he dropped to the ground.

The stablehand boy was gazing in bewildered awe at Rey. "It's you," he finally breathed out. "The new Jedi everyone's been talking about."

Rey cast her eyes down to the boy. He had sandy brown hair, curious hazel eyes. Dirt and grime on his porcelain skin. A wide smile, as he grinned up at her with admiration and hope. Rey could tell he had the heart of a rebel... and, as she probed his aura further, the potential of a Jedi.

This boy was Force sensitive...

The boy was now glancing to Finn, the same amazement in his eyes. "I remember you! You're that guy with the Resistance who passed through here some days ago!" Grinning broadly, he eagerly flashed out his fist, so that Rey could see a ring on his finger.

And with that, Finn recognized the boy - it was the one whom Rose had given her ring to as they were escaping this place.

Rey glanced between the boys. "You two know each other?"

Finn nodded. Rey turned back to the boy and helped him to his feet. "What's your name, kid?"

"Temiri Blagg," he chirped. "Are you here to free us from the First Order?"

Before Rey could answer, Finn spotted a Rodian from yards away, pointing at them while chittering to a pair of Stormtroopers. His eyes bulged. "We gotta move..."

In a split-second decision, Rey grabbed Temiri's hand and pulled him along. "Follow me." The little stablehand seemed only too happy to oblige.

PING! PING! Red blaster bolts pierced the air, whizzing past their heads, Rey yelping and ducking.

"You there! Halt!" The steady thud of combat boots was gaining. PING, PING, PING!

"Come on, Temiri!" So saying, Finn flipped the boy onto his shoulders and began to sprint even faster after his best friend. Temiri hung onto Finn's neck for dear life, bouncing along. Ironically, he seemed to be having a grand old time, even with troopers firing at their backs.

They reached the end of the tunnel leading out of the arena.

"Halt in the name of the First Order! Detain those fugitives!"

The turnstiles locked in place. No matter. Rey Force pushed the ticket-takers out of the way and leapt over the stile.

"Hold on, Blagg!" And bending his knees, Finn actually Force leapt after her.

Rey did not have time to show pride in her friend's accomplishment, done without any training, for the blaster bolts hurtling after them forced the trio on their way.

"We can't go back to the high-rise; we'd lead them straight to the others!" Rey cried out.

"What do you suggest?" Finn bellowed back, as they hair-pin turned around a corner.

"The Falcon!" Rey hollered, just before needing to skid to a stop as a small squad of troopers blocked their path, blasters drawn.

Just before they could open fire -

POW! POW! Green lasers suddenly whizzed over the group's heads, hitting and scattering the battalion in their path. Glancing to her left, Rey jumped to find a masked figure at her side, in purple and chrome armor, a blast pistol smoking at her hip.

"Go!" The figure's mask snapped to meet Rey's amazed stare. "I'll cover you!"

The trio made a break for the _Falcon_ , the mysterious gunslinger bringing up the rear. Rey had little time to dwell on the fact that she didn't know this mysterious female (judging by her voice) and that they might be leading a foe to the most wanted ship in the galaxy.

The gangplank was mercifully lowered as Rey, Finn, Temiri and their new ally raced inside the hull. Poe and Leia jerked, startled, when the group appeared, panting.

"Rey? What happened?" Poe stood.

"Troopers," she gasped. "Take off and make for the hotel!"

There was a roar from the cockpit as Chewie gunned the thrusters to life. Poe dove to take command of the pilot's chair and the ship was in the air in moments.

"Over there! Tax us low!" Poe ordered.

Chewie obeyed. But as they neared the rooftop...

WHOOM! The shadow of a Star Destroyer appeared out of hyperspace in the atmosphere above them. There was a whine, a flash of green light, and the hotel was in flames, halfway obliterated.

"NO!" Rey's face crumpled in horror. She could feel it, the agony of Force essences being sniffed out. C'ai Threnalli... General Ematt... Snap Wexley...

"Get us out of here, flyboy!" The female gunslinger barked.

Poe bristled, glancing to Rey. "Who is she?"

"Don't know, but you might wanna do what she says!" Rey glowered.

Poe had little choice but to lightspeed skip out of the planet's atmosphere and then jump to hyperspace.

Blasting safely away from Cantonica, Rey staggered back into the dejarik booth, exhausted. Through her closed eyelids, she could feel Finn and Temiri watching her every move, but she didn't have the strength to ease their concerns regarding her wellbeing.

Silence prevailed. Then, finally...

"That was awesome!" Temiri was wowed.

Rey couldn't help more than a strained giggle. Then Finn started chuckling, clapping the stablehand on the back. "You're OK, kid. You're OK."

"So:" Temiri's eyes gleamed. "Who do I have to thank for getting me out of that dump?"

Finn extended a hand. "Finn. Just Finn."

The Jedi opened her eyes to smile at Temiri tiredly. "I'm Rey. Rey S-" She abruptly stopped, realizing she had nearly introduced herself as Rey Solo. She flushed at how Finn was eyeing her curiously, having detected the near slip; Temiri didn't appear to notice.

"Last names aren't popular here, huh?" the boy cracked.

"Why do I sense we've picked up _another_ pathetic life-form?" Poe droned from the cockpit. Leaning against the wall, the female gunslinger, still masked, glowered.

"Shut up, Poe!" Rey hollered, before losing herself back deep into thought. Though she hadn't completed the phrase, she found that even thinking those two words - Rey Solo - felt right. After all, wasn't she Ben Solo's wife?

That was when it dawned on Rey. She was married. She finally had a _last_ _name_. She was Ben Solo's wife.

Ben...

Quite suddenly, Rey felt herself frown. "Excuse me," she said shortly, retreating for Han Solo's quarters. As she departed, she heard Finn ask the gunslinger her name.

"Zorri Bliss. But don't go blabbing it too much, bucko."

* * *

Shutting the door to the captain's quarters behind her, a fuming Rey stood in the empty space and waited. She had always sensed that the Bond could not just be opened at her will - it didn't work like that. Before, she had always had to wait and be pleasantly surprised when it did open of its own accord.

Well. She was fully prepared to wait, as long as it took.

Thankfully, it didn't take long.

Up came the tingle from her spine. The squelching sound... and there stood her husband. Masked.

Rey's blood boiled. Between Stromtroopers and that Zorri girl, she had had quite enough of masks for today. Ben wasn't even looking in her direction when the Bond opened, but once he saw her, he froze.

Rey's teeth set on edge.

"Wh-"

He sharply held up a finger as if to say, _Give me a moment_. She sat back on a shipping crate, steaming and watching him as her husband turned back to someone she couldn't see, then start walking in a seemingly nonsensical pattern. He was obviously trying to make his way back to his quarters from wherever he was, and it was a wonder he didn't bump into her surroundings. In fact, slowly, the surroundings of her husband began to come into view - the polished floors of a Star Destroyer (Rey softly let forth a growl), as Ben finally halted in what was in all likelihood the privacy of his own rooms.

Seconds later, he was tearing off the mask. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, I was in a meeting -"

"How dare you!"

Ben faltered at how she screamed at him. "What?"

Rey leapt her to feet, angry tears pricking at her eyes. "How dare you sick your troopers on me and my friends to capture us! You... and your bloody Star Destroyer! Are you there now? Are you watching that hotel full of innocent people burn?!" Her body was positively shaking with rage.

Ben looked even more perplexed. "Rey... what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about Canto Bight, Ben!" Rey screeched. "You and your thugs nearly blowing up all of Cantonica! You ordering your troopers to try and capture me and Finn!"

"Cantonica?" Ben's face creased in confusion. "The _Finalizer_ isn't anywhere _near_ there! We're stationed halfway cross the galaxy from that place."

Rey's anger faltered slightly, though her eyes still flashed.

"Believe me, wife dearest. I swear on our marriage, it's true. Have I ever lied to you?"

Rey clenched her teeth, sensing the sincere earnestness in his words but still wanting to hang onto her anger. "No." A pause, and then: "But that still doesn't explain why you ordered Stormtroopers out to kill me!"

"Stormtroopers? On Cantonica?" Ben's brow furrowed in thought. "That's not possible..." He turned away to rifle through some papers at a desk. Freezing, he turned back to his wife. "I ordered the last battalion of troopers to pull out from that system. That was two days ago. The morning..."

"The morning of Crait," Rey concluded. They both froze, holding each other's eyes.

"Yeah," Ben nodded dejectedly. "It... it was one of my first commands, as... Supreme Leader." His lips pursed. "Someone put a stay on that order! But who?"

By now, all the tension had nearly left Rey's body as she took Ben in. Whoever had deployed those Stormtroopers, whoever had fired from that Star Destroyer over Canto Bight, it wasn't him.

Which begged the question: who had?

* * *

High in the atmosphere above Cantonica, Armitage Hux was prancing around his Star Destroyer like a yearling having just gotten the hang of walking. He was mighty pleased with himself, and the intelligence he had gathered. He was sure, with 99.99% confidence that he had just snuffed out the final cell of the Resistance with one cruel stroke. Now that pompous fool Kylo Ren would have to grant him the new commission he so rightfully deserved. And if he didn't... well, Hux was prepared to seize it himself.

"Sir," Admiral Puesey suddenly saluted him. "We are receiving radio reports that a ship resembling the _Millennium Falcon_ jumped into hyperspace from Cantonica's atmosphere. We believe the Jedi may be on board, after being seen fleeing the area."

A muscle clenched in Hux's jaw. "Use every single one of our scanners, Admiral, and send out an all-call bulletin! I want that ship!"

"Very good, sir."

Hux snarled. The Jedi...

He quickly sequestered himself in his rooms, turning to the security video monitoring system he had set up. Pulling out a holodisc, he deposited it into the player. A low-ranking officer had recovered this footage from the _Supremacy_... and what it had shown Hux had intrigued him.

The screen now showed Ren and the Jedi standing in an elevator just off the Supreme Leader's chambers. The girl was standing quite close to him, the pair whispering to each other in the way that lovers do.

"You will not bow before Snoke," she insisted. Then her voice softened, crooning and sounding almost like soft velvet. "You'll turn. I'll help you. I saw it."

Hux's eyes gleamed. So she had been so sure she could make Ren a traitor, had she? Almost as if she had a vision of the future...

Unfortunately, Hux didn't have any video footage from the former Supreme Leader's chambers. Upon receiving this tape, he had asked his informant to mine for those, but with the _Supremacy_ having been sliced in half and the Supreme Leader's chambers being the point of impact, there had been no luck. In all likelihood, whatever had later transpired in that chamber had been lost to history. Without it, Hux didn't have any real proof over just who had killed the former Supreme Leader.

But no matter. Hux had something better... the tantalizing piece of gossip that Admiral Puesey had been babbling on about some days earlier. The DNA test was no joke; Hux had checked the blood samples himself.

Staring at the Jedi girl frozen on the screen, Hux saw in her personage a chance to cement the First Order forever... and perhaps, if his hunch was right, finally strike a fatal blow at Kylo Ren.

For the first time in a good long while, Armitage Hux felt great.


	7. Page Turners, They Are Not

**Chapter 7: Page Turners, They Are Not**

Rey had sat through an hour of Finn and Temiri practicing lightsaber defense with an old training remote before needing to slip away alone for a break. So far, her first attempt at grooming a Padawan learner wasn't going well.

Temiri was enthusiastic, eager to learn, but that exuberance made him unfocused. As for Finn, he was grappling with a long bout of impatience, born from perhaps some lingering trauma, which made him very aggressive.

Rey still didn't think she was full Jedi yet, never mind a Jedi Master. And she had always been reticent to take on a first pupil. Now, she had not one, but two - and at least an eight year age difference between them.

And then there were these Jedi texts.

She had stolen the whole lot of them from the Jedi tree on Ahch-To and had not cracked them until this morning, when a question about the Force from Temiri had left her fumbling to answer.

Trying to decipher the same line three times in the last five minutes, Rey slammed the book shut in frustration, blinking back tears. This was why she was not cut out to be a Jedi teacher. If Kylo Ren were here right now, he would surely laugh at her. She could almost hear what he would say: _So, this is how the wife of Ben Solo intends to bring back the Jedi Order - with a turncoat Stormtrooper, and a runty stablehand._

Almost as if on cue, the tingle at her spine appeared, and she hastily wiped at her eyes in the last moment before the Bond was opened. She didn't really want to see Kylo right now.

Except it wasn't Kylo who appeared before her now. It was Ben, her husband, dark eyes brimming with genuine concern and no mask in sight. He knelt at her side, placing a hand on her knee... and Rey felt warmth bloom at his touch.

"What's wrong, my darling?"

She inhaled a shaky breath, her eyes welling up. "I've stumbled my way into starting to bring the Jedi back before I felt I was ready. I have two students, who are looking to me, depending on me... and I don't have all the answers!" Picking up one tome, she shook it nearly in his face. "I should have the answers, in these books, at least! But you know something? - I can't _read_ them!" She hurled the text into one corner, so that it fell open on its binding. Burying her face in her lap, Rey sobbed.

"I can't read..." she moaned. "I can't read..."

She could feel Ben's loving and worried gaze on her. "Can't read? As in... at all?"

She raised her face from her lap to glower at him bitterly, brown eyes glassy. "Go ahead! Laugh it up! Kylo Ren's job is going to be so easy..."

Ben squirmed at this, even as on the inside he could only feel pity for her. And also some deep admiration. His wife, the last Jedi... functionally illiterate. And yet she had managed to survive on the harsh desert world of Jakku for more than a decade. A bubble of anger churned in his stomach as he thought of that fat Unkar Plutt, who he had sometimes observed whenever he had sensed that mysterious girl known as Rey in his visions and dreams for many years. That cretin had never seen fit to give his future bride a proper education. No one had thought to broaden her mind at all.

"Well, then... how did you know how to fly all those ships? Surely there must have been manuals you found, while you were scavenging!"

"Those manuals were written in binary code, Ben," Rey informed him sadly. "0s and 1s. Transistors. Numbers, I can read. Words..." She folded into herself, deeply ashamed.

She shouldn't be, Ben thought, over not knowing how to read. No one taught her how.

"I guess I'll teach you, then."

She gave him a watery smile, clearly thinking he was joking. "I suppose you'll want a divorce now," she cracked. "Can't have the Supreme Leader married to an illiterate woman."

"Nonsense." Quite earnestly, Ben seized her hand. "I would never want to divorce you," he whispered passionately, meaning every word. "Not now. Not ever."

She gazed at him, her face heart-shaped, her lips slightly parted in shock. Electricity seemed to flow from her hand to his and back again, and she shyly pulled her fingers away.

But that didn't stop Ben and Rey from taking a long moment to gaze deeply into each other's eyes. So entranced were there in each other, that neither noticed how their faces had drawn quite close until they were nearly right on top of each other.

"Well..." Ben cleared his throat, and crossing to retrieve the book lying in the corner. "Let's start with the first chapter of this one." He picked it up, and leafed to the first page. "Thankfully, it's written in Basic. Here." He bashfully curled up next to her, boldly taking her hand again so as to guide her finger to the first word. He felt Rey's breath still, but happily, she didn't pull her hand away this time.

Rey squinted at the first inky letters. Ben found it adorable how her face scrunched up when she concentrated.

"Try sounding it out."

"The...There... i-is..." Rey uttered unsteadily. Ben nodded, smiling encouragingly.

By the time several hours had elapsed on the chrono, Rey was able to read the entire Jedi Code.

"...There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no death, there is the Force." Her face snapped up to his, eyes shining. "I can read... I can read!"

"I'm so proud of you!" Ben crowed, and hugged her.

The embrace abruptly halted after a moment, as husband and wife drew back to stare at each other. Everything stood still for just a moment. And then...

It happened so fast, Ben almost missed it. But he felt wet lips brush his cheek. He blinked as Rey drew back from where she had pecked him, her pretty cheeks flushing, eyelashes fluttering shyly.

Ben took a deep breath, holding her in his sights as he willed liquid courage to fuel him...

... but before he could act, the connection broke.


	8. You're Wondering What That Was

**Chapter 8: You're Wondering What That Was**

For a long time after the Bond was severed for the day, Ben simply sat on the edge of his bed, rubbing at the spot on his face where Rey had kissed him. Her lips had touched right along his cheekbone, and the spot seemed to burn with a warmth that Ben could not immediately identify.

Sighing heavily, he rose from the mattress and milled about, preparing for bed. He changed into his pajamas, brushed his teeth, all the while stopping between every few motions to touch the same holy spot where her lips had been.

Something charged had taken place, during that evening of reading. Something had passed between them. His feelings for her were burgeoning, like a mushroom cloud... and though those feelings should have been dangerous, Ben found himself loathe to part with them.

He loved Rey. He had always known that, ever since he had met her. But how much he loved her... that was a wholly different question.

And how true was it in the reciprocal, if at all? Throughout their reading lesson, Rey had sat close to him, let him guide her finger. Let him hold her hand... and even when she hadn't that first time, she had appeared reluctant to keep her distance. They had hugged... she had kissed him...

Was there a deeper meaning, in those hidden moments?, Ben ruminated, as he lowered himself onto his bed, hands clasped behind his head. He wasn't sure.

_A little twinge, a little shock, a little whisper at the bottom of your memory... A sudden wind, a gentle knock, and then a rustle in the leaves... You hold your breath, you check the lock, you reassure yourself there's nothing at the window..._

_But you're wondering... you're wondering... you're wondering what that was..._

Ben shook his head, a smile attempting to reassure him. Married though he might be, he remembered how boundaries had been set by Rey in that hotel room. He rolled over onto his side, trying to drift off to sleep. _Nothing's gonna happen... Nothing's gonna happen..._

Still his thoughts refused to quiet.

_You turn a key, you flip a switch, you settle back into the blissful unfamiliar... You close your eyes, but there's an itch, a little hurt your heart retrieves... But you ignore the tiny twitch, pretend the feeling will be gone before the morning._

_But you're wondering... you're wondering... you're wondering where you are... Nothing's gonna happen... nothing's gonna happen..._

Rey's beautiful face danced into his head just then. And then the pillow was between his legs.

_But wouldn't it be fine to share the weather in her eyes, her hair? Her footstep as she climbs the stair? The shadow in her Light? And everything you know is true, and everything you want to do, and everything that makes you YOU glides against the night... and nothing's black and white..._

Ben's entire body seized as he ejaculated hard into his pants, floating down from his high. His fuzzy brain only vaguely registered the shock that he lusted for Rey. He desired his wife. Of course, that would be a conventional thing... if Ben and Rey's union was a conventional marriage.

He sat up, peeling off his pajama bottoms and cleaning himself, trying not to stare at angry, red throbbing stalk as it softened in his clenched palm.

_But you're wondering... you're wondering... you're wondering what to do... But you're wondering... you're wondering... you're wondering if it's true... Nothing's gonna happen... nothing has to happen..._

* * *

**A/N: Song credit goes to Jason Robert Brown, "Wondering" from _The Bridges of Madison County_.**


	9. What Do You Call A Man Like That?

**Chapter 9: What Do You Call A Man Like That?**

The _Falcon_ had been wandering aimlessly through space for the past three days. In that time, Zorri Bliss had grown restless, asking Poe to drop her off somewhere, anywhere, but the pilot had argued that landing in any system was still too risky.

Rey could hear the pilot and bounty hunter bickering in the cockpit from all the way down the hall, and while she herself had started to get cabin fever in the extreme, she no longer very much cared at this point how long they remained suspended in space. She had other things on her mind. She now lay quietly in her bunk, staring up at the underside of the top one where she could hear Finn snoring loudly.

She could not get these little flashes of moments out of her head. From reading today with Ben. He had been so kind and patient with her, never once passing judgment on her for her now-cured illiteracy.

He had known full well he was helping her comprehend the Jedi texts, helping her along in a quest that remained at odds with the First Order... and yet he had helped her anyway, sitting back quiet and supportive as any good husband would.

She hadn't felt there was any other way to adequately express her gratitude but to kiss him on his cheek. Her face now grew warm as she recalled the feel of his skin beneath her wet lips. Her own skin grew hotter still as she thought of how gently he had held her when they hugged...

Rey hadn't done a good job of showing it initially, but she had enjoyed it very much when Ben held her hand. The feel of his thumb rubbing along her palm...

Rey groaned, as she quite unexpectedly thought of where else that thumb could touch her and make her feel nice...

_What do you call a man like that? How do you even try to give it a name, a classification? What do you call a man like that? Something from days gone by. A kind of wind blown from the past, but where do you find it? From what time, or place, or fairytale? Can someone so ridiculous... so earnest... so strong..._

Now dipped into the soaking, baby pink skin of her folds, Rey touched her holy place. Touched herself, while imagining that it was Ben who was touching her. Finding her nub, she pinched it with her thumb and forefinger, Ben's face swimming behind her eyes, and she keened into it all with a soft moan.

_What do you call a man like this? How to describe his hands, so tense and so easy, so controlled but unpredictable... The tornado of his eyes, shining bright... finding light... Wanting something, knowing something, seeing something, something holy, something newly born without a name..._

"Uhhh... Uhhh... Huhhhhhh! Ohhhhh... Oh... Oh, Gods... Ben... Ben..." Rey was groaning, eyes rolling into the back of her head as she bucked her hips into her palm. Her skin was alight with flame, her body quivered, something deep inside her crested...

Her toes curled.

"BEN!" Rey let out an airy scream as she felt her juices explode all across her hand. Her body convulsed, twitching on the mattress, and again she cried out. "BEN!" Oh so slowly, she parachuted back to reality.

As soon as she landed, however, Rey's eyes went as big as saucers, and she clapped a hand over her treasonous mouth. She had full-on yelled out the name of her husband in bed... and probably woken up the rest of the ship that - not counting her - carried seven other people on board.

 _Stupid!_ she scolded herself. _What a stupid, stupid, STUPID thing for you to do!_

Mercifully, the hull of the Coreillian YT freighter remained still. The most disturbance came from Finn, who merely rolled over in the bunk above her while mumbling something about pie.

Getting up tentatively to make sure the mattress didn't do any more creaking, Rey stole into the adjoining fresher and peeled off her pajama bottoms, face positively scorching with shame. Cleaning herself between her thighs, she stuffed the soiled pajamas into the corner of the shower, making sure that she would rise first and properly dispose of them in the wash. It would not do for Finn to come upon the evidence first, and perhaps ask untoward questions.

Slipping back into her bunk now naked from the waist down, Rey curled onto her side and - with thoughts churning - fell into an uncertain sleep.

* * *

**A/N: Song credit goes to Jason Robert Brown, "What Do You Call a Man Like That?" from _The Bridges of Madison County_.**


	10. The Knights of Ren

**Chapter 10: The Knights of Ren**

Rey beat Finn into the fresher the next morning. Washing her body and hair she dressed quietly and managed to successfully stuff her soiled pajamas into the hamper on her way down to the main hold for breakfast. Seated at the dejarik booth, she grinned warmly as her two apprentices joined her.

"Morning."

"Good morning, Master," Finn cracked, as he poured himself a mug of cafe. "Have pleasant dreams?"

Rey smiled weakly, ducking her face back into her eggs to hide how her cheeks were rapidly turning pink. "Yes." Finding herself unable to look at him or Temiri, who was pushing his sausage links around his plate in a ho-hum manner, she found her gaze wandering over to the single med cot, where Rose still lay unresponsive to the galaxy. Rey's face fell in dread.

"How's Rosie doing?"

Finn glanced back over his shoulder to the brown-skinned technician girl, his own expression deeply worried. "I checked on her last night before I went to bed. Stable. But... I think it's an open question whether she's ever going to wake up."

Rey pursed her lips grimly, extending a hand across the table to give Finn's palm a squeeze. He stared down at their joined hands for a moment before, cracking a tired smile, he squeezed back.

The door leading into the main corridor banged open just then, and Poe and Zorri's voices carried as they stomped across the main hold, embroiled in the shouting match that had quickly become their normal routine.

Without her mask on, Rey found that Zorri had a stunningly beautiful face. Her hair cascaded down in ringlets to frame her unblemished, porcelain skin. Her face was heart-shaped, full lips and her eyes were the most piercing blue.

Eyes that were now flashing with rage and annoyance at Poe Dameron. "Bypassing the compressor is quicker!" the attractive bounty hunter was hollering.

"It's also fucking illegal!" Poe snapped back, stomping towards the cockpit.

"Don't you walk away from me!" Zorri fumed. "If you want this ship to get out of enemy territory in one piece, you could at least listen to me!"

"I am the captain of this ship!" Poe whirled around to get in her face. "I don't have to listen to anybody - especially not some prissy, know-it-all, over-emotional -"

KABOOM!

An explosion rocked the Falcon's hull just then, swaying everything dangerously to the starboard side as the freighter spun out. The lights disengaged for just a parsec, then came back on again.

Poe looked dazed. "What the hell...?"

Chewie roared from the cockpit, and Poe dove in past the flimsy curtain. Zorri had been thrown to the floor, and was now huffing her curly brown hair out of her face. Aside from the fact that her argument had been called off, she looked OK.

The lights had been restored, accompanied by a frantic beeping. Following the sound, Finn's face contorted in horror as he saw Rose convulsing on the med cot.

"The explosion! It knocked out her oxygen supply!"

He and Rey sprinted over to the med cot, tugging at the glass dome which Rose's body was now thrashing against. "Help me get this off her!"

Rey's muscles strained as she assisted Finn in lifting the dome off and away, and she only managed to do it with some help from the Force. She turned to the digital readouts, tapping a few sequences.

"All controls are overridden. Fried. Her vitals are going haywire - she's crashing!"

Finn looked panicked, and was just about to say something when another explosion flung them all off-balance.

"Who the _fuck_ is firing at us?" Zorri bellowed, clearly in Poe's direction.

"Trying to find out..." Poe hollered back, tone stressed and annoyed.

Rose's body all at once stopped twitching. Terrified, Finn grabbed the girl by the shoulders and started to shake her.

"Rose... Rosie!"

Observing the sight forlornly, Rey blinked back tears. "It's too late," she croaked. Finn's gaze snapped to her, wild. Rey shook her head. "She's gone."

The loud PING! of a laser barrage could be heard just then from outside, and the whole Falcon lurched hard to port as Poe sent it into a dizzying evasive maneuver. Knocking into the hallway, Zorri stalked for the cockpit, Rey and Finn staggering after her.

"Wait for me!" Temiri called, but Leia held him back in the dejarik booth.

"Here, child, you stay with me..."

"DAMERON! Can you at least _try_ to keep this thing stable?!" Zorri screeched.

Almost in answer, their attacker landed another direct hit, this time on the satellite dish, jolting Zorri that she stumbled and landed right in Poe's lap. His hands braced her hips almost instinctively so that she didn't go all over the place.

The pilot and bounty hunter froze for a moment, gaping at each other. Then, just as quickly, the tableau passed, Zorri wriggling up and out of Poe's arms with a scoff.

"There!" Rey pointed out the viewfinder to where a sleek and modified cruiser shaped similarly a Y-Wing was banking hard to circle back around. "What's that?"

Also seeing the transport, Finn's face went white. "Holy Sith... that's the _Knife 9_..."

"The Knife _what_?" Zorri gawped.

"The ship of the Knights of Ren," Finn told the others. "I've only ever seen it once before, when I was stationed with the Sanitation Corps on Raxus Prime..."

"Very nice, except they're back to aiming at us?!" Zorri screamed. "Dameron! Are you there?!"

"Hang onto your curlers!" Poe gritted his teeth, and plunged the _Falcon_ into a dizzying dive. Then he activated the hyperdrive. "Hold on!" They disappeared into the wormhole, outrunning another stream of green lasers.

Zorri didn't appear pleased. "You know, you can't just solve every tight spot by flinging us into hyperdrive! They could be tracking us!"

"Would you stop criticizing me for once in your life, woman?!" Poe yelled, jumping to his feet and throwing off his headset.

Tuning them out, Rey stumbled out of the cockpit, needing to clear her head. She noticed Finn wander back over to where Rose's dead body lay on the med cot, and she turned her face away. Whenever they managed to touch down somewhere safely, they would have to dispose of her corpse somehow...

Closing the door to Han Solo's quarters, Rey turned and took in the room around her.

"Ben?" she called. "Honey, I need to talk to you!"

She had never tried to open the Bond this way before, had no idea if it would even work, but then she felt the tingle at her spine again. Time and space blurred, and there he appeared. Perhaps it was coincidental, that for once the Bond decided to open when she happened to call for him.

More and more, she was encountering him without his mask, and it was a welcome sight. Rey breathed in happy relief. "Thank Maker you're here," she sighed, hugging him. "We just got out of a pretty tight spot."

His handsome face fell in distress. "What happened?"

"The Knights of Ren. They attacked us in the _Knife 9_ , while we were floating just off the Moddell sector."

Ben gaped. "What the _kriff_ are they doing out there? They are never supposed to leave the Mustafar system until I call for them!"

Resting her hands on his forearms, Rey cocked an eyebrow. "So I take it that means you didn't order them to fire at us?"

Ben frowned hard. "Seems I've been giving a lot of unusual orders lately..." he brooded darkly. Noticing how she was peering at him worriedly, he flashed her a loving smile, daring to slip his arms about her waist. "Don't fret, my sweet. I'll get to the bottom of this... and I will personally see to it that no one is tracking or otherwise coming within range of you."

She gazed at him, eyes shining, face brightening into a beaming smile. "Ben... thank you!"

They smiled into each other's eyes for a long moment. Slowly, Ben dipped his head, bringing his face quite close. Rey held back for a moment, feeling a little shy, but then Ben's lips crushed against hers in a searing kiss.

Closing her eyes, Rey gasped into his mouth for a moment, allowing Ben's tongue to slip into her mouth and send electric shocks down to the tips of her toes. Winding her arms about his neck, Rey wove her fingers into his long, silky black hair and she _pulled_. Ben's hands cupped the shapely curve of her rear, giving it a squeeze and she _moaned_. "Mmmmhmmmmmmm..."

Ben's lips were positively ravaging hers now, his mouth mashing into hers so deeply it was hard to tell where he ended and she began. It felt and surely looked like how some actors kissed in the few old holo-movies Rey had seen as a little girl, mostly bootlegged onto the entertainment systems of downed Destroyers.

And as their lips continued to meet, Rey knew that she never wanted to kiss anyone else but her husband ever again. Poe Dameron didn't even come close...

"Rey, are you in here...?" There was no time to guard against the door to Han's quarters suddenly opening, as Finn stepped into the room, only for his voice to trail-off mid-sentence.

Rey and Ben sharply broke apart out of the kiss, their arms still tangled about each other. The Jedi whirled around in horror to see the ashen and bewildered face of her best friend, her flushed and rouged and very-kissed lips dropping open with a gasp.

"F...Finny?"


	11. Enemy Combatant

**Chapter 11: Enemy Combatant**

For a moment, all three of the young adults froze, the dark-skinned man gawking at the sight of his best friend wrapped in the close embrace of their sworn enemy. Rey also looked positively mortified. Where her body had just a moment ago been alive at the heat of Ben's touch, it was now alive with a debilitating fear. The fear of knowing you were caught.

As a child, there had been moments when Rey had needed to resort to stealing from other scavengers to get by. She had never been proud of the practice, but had nevertheless become quite skilled at it. Only a few times had she ever been discovered in the act; it happened so rarely that a deep terror would flash across her entire being upon realizing that she had been found out.

That same terror consumed her now, at knowing that Finn had come upon her not quite sleeping with the enemy, but still making out with him. Air began to return to her lungs, both recovering from Ben's kiss making her lose her breath and also the need to calm her frantic heartbeat.

"Finny..." she breathed slowly. For some strange reason, she did not have the wits about her to remove herself from Ben's arms. "Let me... This isn't what it looks like..." She immediately kicked herself at selecting the stupidest thing to say: this was _exactly_ what it looked like.

Too late. The proverbial bomb exploded.

"I... I don't _believe_ it!" Finn looked like he was one tick away from spontaneously combusting. "You..."

"Finny..."

" _You and him!_ "

"Finny, listen to me, please," Rey begged, raising her hands pleadingly. "I can explain..."

Finn twisted away as Rey attempted to move closer to him, chortling with derisive laughter. "Oh, ho, ho, Rey, I would _love_ to see you try! Is this him, then? Your mystery husband you keep talking about?"

Rey gulped, eyes shining with tears. "Yes," she whispered. "And it's very hard to understand, but I need you to try, OK?"

She could see Finn's whole frame shaking, his facing scrunching up and his hands balling into fists. "No need. I just hope you're satisfied with what you've wrought... you treasonous WRETCH!"

Rey's face twisted in horror as Finn lunged at her in a rage. Ben moved to get between them...

... but had to duck as an entire carton of Harris wrenches came flying at his head. Finn's rage in the Force was so all-consuming, he was effortlessly levitating most everything in the room that wasn't tied down. Boxes of pilot's drivers, bonding tape and compressors were being hurled as dangerous projectiles towards the star-crossed couple.

"Finn, stop!" Rey cried.

A jar of power converters sailed towards her head.

"Look out!" Ben grabbed his love and flung them both out of the way. Finn continued to advance. Rey spun to her husband.

"Ben, RUN!" Of course, technically, he didn't have anywhere to run to, but the Bond mercifully did its work in allowing the connection to be broken.

"I'm gonna kill him! -" Finn stopped mid-scream as he watched Ben suddenly and abruptly vanish into thin air. "Where'd he go? Where'd he _go_?!"

Rey shakily got to her feet as Finn's wild eyes snapped to her. Paralyzed with fear, Rey lifted her hands placatingly.

"Finny..."

"Don't call me that! You... you SLUT!"

Rey saw the metal box of motivators spinning towards her chest. Throwing out a hand and letting out a growl, she Force flung the projectile away so that it just missed Finn's head and thudded against the wall, spilling motivators all over the floor so that they rolled about.

Finn ducked low, attempting to bull-rush her. Thinking fast, Rey summoned her lightsaber into her hands and ignited it as a kind of warning shot. She desperately didn't want to use it against her sweet friend, but...

Finn kept coming. Pained, Rey swung at his knees, keeping her swipe controlled in the aim to merely singe his knees, not cut anything critical. Her goal was to subdue, not harm. She remembered Luke's words on Ahch-To: _a Jedi should only use his weapon for defense, never for attack..._

In an astonishing display of agility, Finn nimbly leapt over the plasma blade. He barreled into Rey, knocking her to the ground. Rolling around the floor, they grappled for the laser sword.

Unfortunately, Finn was much stronger in a purely physical sense and he managed to wrestle the Skywalker saber away, while at the same time pinning Rey beneath him. She growled and squirmed, trying to buck him off, but he held firm. He threw out a hand, and something came slapping into his waiting palm.

Rey barely had time to recognize it as the blaster Han had given her before she was pistol-whipped across the head and everything went black.

* * *

Her vision came back to her spotty, circles and squares dancing in front of her eyes. Groaning, Rey's head bobbed like a marionette tied to a string as she stirred back into the conscious world.

The first thing she noticed was that the light here - its source still unknown - was bright. Her eyesight nearly restored, she focused in on the checkered surface of what looked like the dejarik board... and the pair of manacles now bolted into the table, the cuffs wound about her wrists. Gritting her teeth, she struggled to free herself, but the cuffs wouldn't budge.

"I'm going to ask you this one time, Rey..." Finn's voice came floating over to her, and she raised her eyes to find his dark form backlit against the bright light, so that she couldn't see his face. "How did Ren get on the ship?"

The images of their fight coming back to her, the realization that he had actually punched her lights out in order to subdue her, Rey found herself glaring at Finn in deep betrayal. Her head throbbed still from where he had struck her with Han's gun, and yet it was his hurtful words that throbbed all the harder.

_You treasonous WRETCH!... You - you SLUT!..._

Glancing to her left, Rey saw Zorri leaning against the curved side of the ship's hull, her expression bored. Closer to her, perched on the edge of the booth was Temiri, face simpering and eyes unsure.

Finn leaned in closer across the dejarik board, so that the bright light was no longer obscuring his face. His mouth was drawn in a thin line, deeply grim.

"How did Ren get on the ship, Rey?" His voice was strangely calmer, almost as if he was asking the question of a child.

Rey was nearly blinded all of a sudden as the bright ball of light was shone almost directly into her face. She could feel the heat from the bulb on her cheek.

"Answer the question!" Poe's furious voice barked from her immediate right.

"Where... where's Leia?" Rey asked tremulously. Surely the General wouldn't stand for this...

"In the cockpit with Chewie," Poe clipped shortly. "Now answer the question! How did Ren get on the fucking _Falcon_?"

"He... he didn't," Rey stammered. "We share a Force Bond."

Finn cocked an eyebrow. "A Force... Bond? What does that mean?"

Fast as lightning, the spotlight was in Rey's face on her left side, Poe having to clamber over the booth to get there. "Yeah, what does it mean?"

Rey let out a long, low breath. "It means that... Ben Solo and I can appear to each other across lightyears. We can see each other without being physically present in the same space."

"And since you're... Bonded, does that mean you are, like, Force married?"

Rey nodded slowly. "Yes," she murmured. "Some Bonds can heighten into what's called a Dyad, when the Force marries two Force users and proclaims them man and wife."

Finn leaned back in his chair, sighing heavily as he digested this. He clasped his hands together. "OK. Now it's on to the hard part:" and he looked Rey squarely in the eye. "Have you been spilling Resistance secrets to the enemy?"

Rey paused for a parsec or two. In conversations with Ben, she had mentioned where they had been, like Canto Bight and the Moddell sector... but she had never explicitly mentioned what she and her friends were doing. He'd known about Lando, but he hadn't known that Lando had been trying to funnel supplies to the rebels.

The spotlight drifted closer, the bulb inches from her cheek. Around it, she could see Poe's clenched teeth. "All cards... on the table... _now_ , Rey."

"Will you stop that?" Finn suddenly barked in exasperation. "She's under enough pressure without you shining a spotlight in her face every five parsecs!" Poe backed up a few steps, though reluctantly.

"You don't have to be so eager playing the bad cop," Finn concluded admonishing him.

"Oh, so _he's_ the bad cop?" Rey's one eyebrow nearly disappeared into her hairline. She and Finn glared at each other. Something had broken between them, and it was an open question whether they would ever get it back.

Rey took a deep breath. "No."

"No what?" Poe snapped.

Rey suppressed a growl. "No, I have not been passing secrets to the enemy."

"Then how do you explain the Stormtroopers chasing us on Canto Bight?" Finn demanded. "The skirmish just now with the Knights of Ren?"

"I thought Ben might have given those orders, but when I confronted him about it, he made it very clear he hadn't. In fact, he had no knowledge of either attack - and both of them were in direct contradiction of previous orders."

"And you believe him?" Finn frowned.

She stared at him hard. "Yes. I do. He's my husband." She sighed. "My best guess is, he thinks an underlying officer is undermining his authority."

Poe's eyes strangely gleamed. "A power struggle..."

Glancing to him, Rey realized what she was inadvertently doing, and its potential, a few seconds after Poe had. The pilot now set the spotlight down, perched on the booth, so it was still shining directly at her, but not uncomfortably so.

"OK," Poe circled the dejarik table, nudging Finn aside so that he was now the one facing Rey. "So, this is what you're gonna do: the first chance we land on-world, you are going to... call him - open this... Bond or whatever, and you're going to tell him _exactly_ where we are."

Rey stared at him blankly, even as her stomach churned with horror. "And why would I do that?"

"Because based on what Finn walked in on, Kylo's not gonna be able to resist a booty call from you. He'll come, and we'll capture him, thereby gaining leverage with the First Order to negotiate a ceasefire, and eventually, an unconditional surrender."

Rey gawked at him. And then she started to laugh. Poe's forehead creased.

"What about anything I just said is funny?"

"You..." Rey chuckled, her teeth tight. "You're... you're a difficult man. And also out of your damn mind. You think we can trap the Supreme Leader, in this state? We're just an old woman, a Wookie, a bounty hunter, a 12-year-old boy and two _fucking_ retards!" Her voice had risen to a shout by the end, pointing at Poe and Finn; she was satisfied with how stung Finn appeared. "You say it's treason to keep my vow. But in asking me to become a double-agent against my husband, you are asking me to commit treason in my marriage!"

"We are at war, Rey." Poe was quickly losing patience.

"I haven't done anything to betray you..." Rey now resorted to pleading.

"That's a lie," Finn snorted darkly.

She ignored him. "And I will not do anything to betray the man I love!" Defiant to the end.

Poe just tsssked and shook his head. "Well, then, maybe a night chained to the dejarik board will help you re-evaluate your thinking."

Temiri whimpered. "Mr. Dameron, I don't like this..."

"None of us do, kid," Poe clipped shortly. "Time to grow up." His words were firm, but his tone was gentle. He turned back to Rey. "If you'll excuse us." And he led Finn away, Poe turned to Zorri. "Train your blaster on her and keep it there."

Both of Zorri's brows went up. "Why? She's not going anywhere."

"Are you questioning me, Bliss? Do it. _Now_."

Scowling, Zorri unholstered her blaster; there was a whine as it powered up. Poe guided Finn out of the main hull and down the corridor where they could talk more privately.

"So: at present, we are down to half the fighting force we had after Crait, our star technician is dead, we never got those transports or manpower from Lando, we're floating in deep space, and our best fighter is a traitor who is sleeping with the enemy," Poe rattled off. "Did I leave anything out?"

"No, that about covers it," Finn sighed morosely. He glanced to Poe warily. "What do we do now?"

"We have to land somewhere - _fast_ ," Poe said. "Chewie and I are plotting a course for the Bonadan system. It's a coastal world with most of the people living on docks, piers and houseboats over the ocean, so there's plenty of H2O - which we need. Those blasted Knights of Ren blew out almost all the lines carrying our drinking water. They'll have to be repaired, among other things. We're also dwindling on food, and I'm not happy about our burn rate on fuel. And... we have to figure out what to do about Rosie." His friend nodded glumly.

"Is it safe? Bonadan?" Finn asked.

"Minimal to no First Order presence, so we could safely stick around for a while without having to lay low."

"And you want Rey to draw Kylo Ren out there. Why?" Finn stared. "If there's no First Order presence there already, and we _do_ manage to capture him..."

"I haven't worked out all the details, all right?" Poe snapped, frazzled. "My bet is Bonadan won't be of much interest to the First Order."

"You seem to betting on the come quite a bit lately," Finn mused warningly. "Like, say, betting that this underling who is challenging Ren's authority would even be _interested_ in getting him back, if we take him alive. Without that interest, we lose our leverage."

"Not necessarily," Poe pointed out. "Say we capture Ren and kill him. That would leave a power vacuum that this underling might not be able to fill, and even if he does, he could be totally incompetent as a leader and the Order will flounder."

"Again, you're making assumptions," Finn stressed. "Or he could be an even more ruthless tactician than Ren is! We just don't know!"

"Well, we have to do _something_!" Poe raged. His eyes were coals. "Rey's been consorting with the enemy. With... _him_. That shouldn't go unpunished!"

"Poe," Finn growled out warningly. "Don't let whatever lingering feelings you have get in the way." He eyed him hard. "If you didn't stand a chance with her then, you definitely don't now."

Poe sneered. "I don't sleep around with traitors."

"Fine," Finn shrugged. "So we go to Bonadan, and see if she can open the Bond. But before we do anything, you better have thought this through until it's airtight." And turning on his heel, he stormed away, leaving Poe staring after him.

* * *

It was deep night in the hull of the _Falcon_ , and Rey was naturally having difficulty falling asleep, seeing as she was chained to a table while sitting up.

At first, she tried to drift off with her chin on her chest like a bird, but that didn't work. So she attempted to stretch her legs across the booth and prop her back against the plush seat. Unfortunately, that meant having to stretch out her arms nearly to her elbows as well, as the manacles at her wrists didn't allow for much range of motion. Curling up wasn't much of an option either.

Zorri had abandoned her guard post hours ago, helping Temiri to bed. Leia had also retired, trudging across the hull from the cockpit, and giving Rey a sympathetic look. Rey didn't know how things had spun out of the General's hands, but Poe was her second-in-command. And... every military organization had to have a policy for how traitors and spies should be dealt with.

She had no idea how things had spiraled so out of control. The fight with Finn had been deeply disturbing, the betrayal in his eyes even more so. Tears slipped down at her cheeks at the thought of her best friend never speaking to her again, which was rapidly becoming a likely possibility.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart..." She curiously heard Ben's voice before he even appeared, before the tell-tale tingle at her spine had arrived. The blurring of time and space occurred mercifully quickly, and there he was, seated across from her on what looked like his bed, shoulders hunched.

A strangled sob emanated from Rey, and she wanted nothing more than to hold him. She strained against the cuffs, but it was futile.

"I'm sorry I got you into this," Ben rumbled, absently tinkling his hands along the tabletop before reaching to clasp her hands in his own. Raising his eyes to her, he gave her the best smile he could. "It's gonna be all right."

"No, it won't," Rey moaned, the tears streaming fast and hard now. "Poe wants me to set a trap for you. He thinks he can use the Bond so that I lure you out."

"It's not a bad plan," Ben admitted grimly. His eyes were fire as he gazed at her. "I would cross to the edges of the galaxy to save you."

"No!" Rey cried. "Ben, run away! Far away! If Poe can get to you that easily, then resist and leave this place! I'll find my own way out."

Ben studied the cuffs at her wrists, but remained silent. Glancing back to her, he frowned deeply at the congealing gash on her right temple. "What the kriff is that?"

He lightly brushed it with a finger, and Rey gasped, hissing in pain. Her reaction only made Ben's face tighten more.

"Who did this to you?" he demanded, voice low.

Rey gulped. "Finn," she whimpered. "He pistol-whipped me with a blaster to take me down. We were grappling all over the place; it was just after you left."

Storm clouds were rolling in across Ben's irises, his entire face clenched like stone. "He's dead," he spat.

"No, please, no..." Rey whimpered, squeezing his fingers. "Things escalated quickly, he was angry, he didn't take time to know what he was doing -"

"No one hits you!" Ben snarled. "Not on my watch." He pointed a tense finger at the angry, red welt; no doubt it would eventually leave a scar. "And that is all the more reason why I should come and save you..."

"Ben," Rey sobbed. " _Please_. Please, for now and for your own safety, stay away. For me?"

Ben breathed deep through his nose. He eyed her gravely. "Do you think you can break away somehow?"

"Maybe," Rey nodded. "Once we land on..." she faltered. She had never before told Ben exactly where they were going, but once she did, wouldn't she just be proving Poe's point?

"Rey..." Ben rumbled. His voice was like soft velvet, and she shivered in delight. "You can tell me. It won't leave this room. And I won't come for you unless you ask me to."

Rey took a deep breath. "Once we land on Bonadan, I might be able to get loose. And then, I could get off-world and come find you."

Ben peered at her. "The Bonadan system?"

"I overheard Poe and Finn talking of landing there."

Ben nodded. "Fair enough."

They sat in companionable silence for a moment, rubbing their thumbs over each other's knuckles.

"Ben?"

"Hmm?"

"Kiss me," Rey begged.

Ben stared at her. Circling the dejarik table, he eased into the booth at her side. Cupping her face in his hands, tilting her head back, he leaned in and pressed his lips tenderly to hers.

She might not have been able to hold him, but Rey worked her mouth and jaw muscles sore as she thoroughly kissed him back.


	12. Bonadan

**Chapter 12: Bonadan**

The powering down of the _Falcon_ 's thrusters didn't jostle Rey from her slumber, which she had spent with her head pitched forward on the tabletop. She was awakened rather rudely a moment later, however, upon being doused with a pitcher of water.

"Get up." Poe's voice was hard. Blinking water droplets out of her eyes, Rey heard Zorri scoff:

"What a waste. That's one of our last liters of water!"

"We'll get more soon enough," Poe growled. Her vision finally clearing, Rey watched as the pilot nodded to Finn. "Finn, uncuff the prisoner, but keep a tight grip on her."

Finn came over, his gaze briefly meeting Rey's. Her hateful expression nearly faltered when she saw the apologetic demeanor in his eyes, as he un-cuffed her wrists. Moving quickly, he pinned Rey's arms behind her back and hauled her to her feet. Shuffling out of the booth, Rey was transferred to Poe. Spinning her around, Dameron made quick work of tying her hands behind her back with the crackling rope of an electro-whip. Now and again, a crackle of electricity would jolt Rey's skin - not enough to do her any real harm, but still enough to make her wince uncomfortably.

Rey now felt Poe's blaster press into the small of her back. "Walk."

"Go to hell!" she hissed fiercely. He didn't appear to acknowledge her statement. Finn glanced away almost ashamedly. The trio, accompanied by Zorri, moved towards the gangplank in a brisk march.

"Chewie, stay here with Temiri and the General," Poe called. "As for what to do with Rose's body... I leave that up to you."

The four fugitives clopped down the gangplank, emerging blinking into the sunlight. Rey wished she could shield her eyes against the glare.

Hitting the first dock, Finn took the lead, followed by Rey with Poe at her back. Zorri brought up the rear, looking thoroughly disinterested at what was going on.

Keeping her gaze fixed at Finn's form forging ahead, Rey felt moisture come to her eyes. Tears began to fall as she thought of her former friend, the droplets cascading onto and saturating the brown planks below.

"Finny... I need to talk to you," she choked out. No response. "Finny, _stop_!" Rey wailed, crying harder. "At least _listen_ to me! Finny, I beg you to _accept_ us!"

Hitting the edge of the pier, Finn halted abruptly, stiffening, and the others copied him. Poe ordered Zorri to undo the electro rope, keeping his gun at the Jedi's back. Finn turned about slowly, and Rey was chilled to see his handsome features were absolutely expressionless.

The former Stormtrooper shook his head. "No, little desert flower."

Rey whimpered. "Finny," she wept. Her tears were now a torrent, and as soon as she was free, she dashed forward to him, her hands caressing his face, beseeching. She didn't care that Poe had his blaster trained on her.

But Finn was cold, so cold. Unmoved. Seizing her wrists, he pried her hands off his cheeks and roughly threw her to the brown boards, and Rey yelped. Circling her, Finn stood aside. Behind her, Rey could sense that Poe's blaster was now aimed squarely at her head.

"Call him," he commanded.

She gazed down hopelessly at her reflection in the frothy tide. "I can't," she murmured brokenly.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I can't just open the Bond at my own accord! It doesn't work like that! It has a mind of its own!" Rey wailed.

She heard the whine as Poe's pistol powered up. "I don't believe you. Figure it out."

Finn nervously shifted from foot to foot, squeamish. "Poe, man... just be patient... lighten up." There was a strange imploring in his tone, as if his resolve was wavering.

Poe held firm. "You have three seconds. One..."

Rey trembled, squeezing her eyes tight so that the tears still leaking stung. She folded her hands almost as if in prayer. The rebel part left in her considered pulling a desperate stunt with the Force, but she feared that Poe might wound or worse kill her with a shot before the tables could fully be turned. _Ben, I love you._

"Two..."

Reflected back at her in the water, Rey observed almost dazedly as a sleek cruiser broke through the gray clouds in the skies above.

Poe's finger quivered over the trigger. "Th -"

The water caught fire.

Rey couldn't have been dazed for more than a moment. When she came to, she was flat on her back and now nearly on the opposite end of the pier, which now tilted at a slant. The blaster fire from the incoming cruiser must have knocked out the support pylons at the other end, for the pier was now dipping into the ocean, submerged at its front end.

Smoke filled the air, along with screams. Rey pushed herself onto her knees and shakily stood, glancing wildly about at the fishing wharf dissolving into chaos. She tried not to breathe in the noxious fumes, coughing through one inhale and pulling her sleeve up to cover her nose.

"Poe? Finn? Zorri?"

No answer from her friends, and she couldn't see them. If the power of the explosion had blasted her all the way back to the other end of the dock, she could only hope that the same had happened to her friends. Perhaps they had just been flung farther, or even into the ocean. Off-hand, she didn't know if Finn could swim; despite the way she had recently been treated at the hands of her once-friends, Rey hated to think of any of them being killed.

Through the haze and smog, Rey suddenly spotted a masked figure striding through the bedlam toward her. Squinting, her eyes alighted with hope. What was he _doing_? Hadn't she told him to... Oh, but was she glad to see him!

"Kylo?"

The smog dissipated further, allowing Rey to see that the masked intruder was now breaking into a run in her direction. Her loving smile faded when she realized he was carrying not a sparking red lightsaber, but a machete. Uh, oh. Although the outfits and mask were similar, this was not the alter ego of her husband.

This was a Knight of Ren.

The _Knife 9_. It had tracked them here. Zorri had been right.

And now a Knight of Ren was charging her, while she didn't have a weapon.

Mind whirring, Rey managed to locate in the Force the _Falcon_ 's rough position, and desperately threw out her hand. She had never tried to summon something from this far away, the Knight was maybe twenty feet out and closing in...

The cool saber hilt slapped into her waiting palm as the Knight Force leapt the last little distance to her, and Rey ignited it just as he tried to bring the machete down on her head.

Letting out a feral yell, Rey pressed the advantage, swinging wide and ferociously. The tactic worked in driving the Knight back several steps. Jedi and Knight danced back onto the center pier, ignoring the people and aliens scrambling to burning boats, sinking boats tethered to the tendrils of docks jutting out into the water.

Rey's blue plasma blade landed a hit on the Knight's free arm, and he growled in pain, the saber piercing the cloth and leaving a gash in the skin beneath. He swiped low, intending to cap Rey at the knees and she dodged not quite in time, allowing the Knight to make a cut of his own.

"GAHH!" Rey felt her right knee burn. Twisting into a somersault, she jumped back, giving herself some more room as she worked out her next move. The Knight stalked towards her.

That was when, glancing to her left down one protruding dock, Rey's heart stopped upon discovering another Knight coming her way.

She pointed her saber at her first attacker threateningly, keeping him at a distance as she scanned the area. Behind her, she heard a buzzing, similar to a lightsaber's, but not quite the same. Through the Force, she could sense the arrival of a third Knight of Ren at her back, wielding what appeared to be a taser.

Directly opposite the Knight at her left, another was strolling almost calmly down the dock at her immediate right.

Rey's body brimmed with frustration, and rapidly dwindling confidence. She was being slowly but surely boxed in. She briefly considered going up, perhaps Force leaping into the mast of a nearby sailboat and achieving the high ground. In answer, she heard the whoosh of flames, and casting her eyes up, she saw the last two Knights of Ren hovering above her on jetpacks.

All six of the Knights had her surrounded. The one whom Rey had first engaged stepped closer.

"Yield!" his voice was low and distorted through the voice modulator.

Rey was out of options. She powered down her weapon.

The Knights closed in.

Suddenly, a seventh masked figure came careening out of the smoke. Landing on one of the two Knights with a jetpack, she managed to rip out the crucial turbo-boost wiring, causing the pack and its wearer to spin out of control. Rey only got a flash of Zorri hanging on to the careening Knight of Ren for dear life before something hard hit her in the head. She pitched forward and felt rough arms catch her, lift her up.

Through the ringing in her ears, she thought she heard someone bellowing her name.

"Rey?... No - REY!"

The Jedi swooned, her eyes rolling. "Finn...y..." she slurred. The last thing she saw was the yawning gangplank of the _Knife 9_ rushing up to meet her before everything went black.

* * *

The sixth Knight of Ren who had been assaulted by Zorri finally tumbled to the docks below, crashing into a pylon and causing both himself and the bounty hunter flung across his back to wipe out.

Rolling onto her back, Zorri didn't have time to kick-flip to her feet before the black-clothed brute was on her, pinning her to the dock. She scratched at his mask with her nails, thrashing and screaming - and then gargling, as the Knight's gloved hands found her throat and squeezed.

One second... two... Zorri's vision was starting to darken. Her wriggling became weaker. As oxygen began to no longer gain access to her brain, she barely had the presence of mind to squirm one hand underneath her bum, where she had hidden a thermal detonator. If she was going to die, she was going to go out on her own terms, and take this fucker with her.

POW!

Before Zorri could flip the switch, she felt the pressure ease off her neck as the Knight of Ren crumpled and rolled over off her, stone-dead. Gasping for air and pushing herself up onto her elbows as her vision restored, Zorri was shocked to find Poe standing over her with his blaster smoking.

"Dameron?" she quickly leapt to her feet, finding herself oddly fuming.

"I had him!"

"Not from where I was standing!" Poe shot back. Zorri cast a quick glance to the Knight's corpse beside them, which now had a gaping hole in the side of its mask. Gnashing her teeth, she placed her hands on her hips.

"I was doing just fine on my own..."

"Are you serious?" Poe regarded her with both disgust and incredulity. "I just covered your hide! A simple thank you would do!"

"Oooohh..." Zorri growled. Her fist flung out before she could stop it.

WHAM! Poe reeled back with a yelp, hand leaping to his splintered jaw.

"That's for poking your mug in my business!" Zorri snarled.

Then, also before she could stop it, the bounty hunter suddenly mashed Poe's face in her hands and fiercely, angrily pushed her lips against his.

The pilot froze in utter shock, and didn't move to kiss her back even as Zorri ravished his lips for a long moment. She even found herself closing her eyes a little. At long last, she broke the kiss with a pronounced smacking sound and she drew away. Her cheeks were on fire, and she didn't like it one bit... but also couldn't help it.

"That's for... saving my life," she admitted, her voice incredibly vulnerable and soft.

Poe Dameron could only stand there, gaping at her in shock.


	13. Empress

**Chapter 13: Empress**

Rey was in and out of consciousness for a long time, after leaving Bonadan.

She could feel the rumble of _Knife 9_ underneath her body, and occasionally, the voices of Kylo's Knights would echo back to her. Through her spotty vision, sometimes she could make out a dark, amorphous outline or two.

"It's a miracle we didn't kill her with that blast..."

"And thank the Force we didn't. He said he wanted her alive..."

"Still - not the cleanest job... no Axel... Solo's ship got away..."

Rey's head slumped forward.

When she next bobbed back into awareness, she felt cool floors against her knees, and her arms felt tight around her back. The voices from the _Knife 9_ were back, this time in an argument with a more pompous voice. Rey thought she could make out the color orange in the general vicinity of the new and grating tone.

"I told you to kill everyone but the girl, and capture the _Millennium Falcon_ in your tractor beam!" Pompous Voice was exploding. "And weren't there six of you?"

"The entire fucking harbor went up, Ginger! Too many moving pieces..." a modified voice yelled.

"Excuses. A completed mission, at best, but scarcely salvageable. The most wanted ship in the galaxy got away, with a crew, and you're down a man!"

"We had to leave Axel behind! We all had the Jedi girl, but a bitchy bounty hunter got in the way!"

Pompous Voice tssssked. "Messy, messy, messy... I can see why Ren keeps you in reserves most of the time..."

There was a snarl, followed by a choking sound, then a scuffle. When Pompous Voice spoke next, he sounded noticeably more strained. "Take her to the brig!"

"Told you he wouldn't be pleased," a second Knight muttered, before Rey was pulled under again...

When she finally woke up for good, Rey found herself flat on her back and strapped to a cot. A wide manacle pinned her down at the waist, while Force -proof ion cuffs bound her wrists. Her ankles were oddly free, and provided her a little comfort, but not much.

Turning her head, she spotted a ginger-haired man seated in a folding chair and watching her. It wasn't the first time she had woken up to discover an agent of the First Order watching her sleep, and although Ben had been deeply mired in his Kylo persona then, Rey found she much preferred even him to this man.

"Where am I?" she questioned.

"The _Brendol_ , aboard as my prisoner," the ginger-haired man informed her. Rey recognized his voice from earlier, almost immediately, only this time, his tone was oddly dulcet.

"My name is Armitage Hux." He rose, his posture that of a gentleman of society, but nonetheless, Rey found his face, his aura, downright oily. She tried to scoot away, shrinking into the wall to which her cot was bolted to, but could only move so far.

"Come, come, my dear, don't be shy," Hux purred. "You should feel honored, having been chosen to restore the Empire."

Rey bared her teeth. "I'll never help you!"

"Oh, Ms. Palpatine, I'm afraid that's not your decision to make," Hux continued to speak smoothly, as he quite suddenly unlocked the manacle at her waist. Swinging her legs off the edge of the cot, Rey found that she was free to get up and move about. Her wrists were still bound, her powers closed off to her, but she knew how to punch and kick. Running for the door, Rey thought if she could just get past it...

She froze when she felt two calloused palms massaging her hips, and something hard press into the curve of her bum. The sharp inhale of nostrils directly in her ear, as if someone was sniffing her hair...

"What are you doing?" Rey growled turning to face Hux. He grabbed her whole skull as he silenced her with a kiss. Rey squealed viciously and managed to yank away.

"Don't!" she spat, tasting the gun-metal of the ion cuffs as she tried in vain to wipe at her mouth.

Hux didn't answer, except to box Rey in, seize her shoulders and slam her into the nearest wall. His breath was quickly on her neck, as his slippery lips and tongue slobbered at her pulse point. The officer pushed his entire body flush against hers, his rough mitts taking full liberty in cupping the swell of Rey's breasts.

"STOP!" Rey yelled.

Hux merely shoved his erection in between her thighs, forcing them apart. He lapped his way up Rey's jaw, to her cheeks. Using one hand to lock her chin in place, he rammed his lips back against hers, forcing his tongue into Rey's mouth.

"MMMM! HMMM!" Rey shrieked in indignation, muffled.

"Do you like it when I touch you, Empress?" Hux hissed directly into the lips which he now plundered.

"Get your hahmmm... hands off mmmmm... me!" Rey tried to yell in between Hux's insistent kisses. With her knees spread as they were, she couldn't effectively knee him in his disgusting groin. She tried to kick him with her feet, getting his ankle, but that only just elicited a sharp gasp, which blew hot air nearly down her throat.

Hux began peppering his lips along her face. "You're fiesty... I like that... you will make a worthy vessel to birth the new Emperor!"

No... no... NO!

"NO!" Rey screamed, thrashing as much as she could, but Hux was astonishingly quick. Maneuvering her back onto the cot, he pinned her down, flicking a hand out to slap a button and the manacle at Rey's waist locked back into place.

Now thoroughly trapped, Rey could only squirm uselessly and helplessly as Hux began divesting her off her pants, throwing them down to her ankles. Squeezing her breasts so hard that they pinched with hurt, he ripped apart the fabric of her tunic to expose her chest. Her bra band was also treated with just as little regard.

Hux's eyes were wild and dark with lust, his hair untamed and sticking up in places as he quickly undid his own trousers. A bloated, ugly thing appeared in Rey's line of sight, and she shut her salty eyes against it, aghast.

A sob escaped from her. "Ben!" she cried, wishing that her husband was here, to have her instead. But now this monster would... and there was nothing she could do about it.

Hux's full weight was now on top of her, pressing down, down. Rey's body chilled and shivered with revulsion as she felt Hux's breath tickle her earlobe as he whispered.

"Imagine what Ren will think of me, when he realizes that I have fathered the galaxy's new ruler with the granddaughter of the Emperor!"

Rey's eyes popped open in horrified anguish, just in time for Hux's member to forcefully take her as he plunged deep inside her, ripping her insides.

"AHHHHHH!" Rey screamed. She screamed and screamed as Hux thrust and thrust, his forehead quickly becoming beady with sweat - sweat that now dropped onto Rey's face like burning rain. The creature's face was buried in her neck, letting out pathetic moans in her ear, along her skin.

Rey tried to push Hux off of her until her arm muscles grew tired and she finally gave up, lying there as the ginger-haired officer had his way with her.

Another slam, weaker this time (she had lost count of how many), two, and then with a final pathetic whimper, she felt Hux ejaculate his cum deep inside her walls.

He rolled off after a moment, so drunk on sex that he fell off the cot and passed out. There he lay, at Rey's feet. All the naked Jedi could do was remain chained to her cot and weep bitterly. She bemoaned her fate, she pined for Ben... and she despaired that she was descended from the most vile line in galactic history - a line that might now very well continue against her will, sired by a brazen usurper...

_Ben... oh, darling Ben, where are you?_


	14. Shoot You Like A Dog

**Chapter 14: Shoot You Like a Dog**

The Bond hadn't opened in days. Worse than that, Ben had not even been able to _feel_ her.

He had willed himself to trust in his wife's decision that, upon touching down on Bonadan, she could make a clean break for it, away from that scum she once called her friends. But when Rey had made no attempt to contact him in the coming hours after their night of kissing, nor at all the following day, he began to wonder whether the pathetic little band had even made it to Bonadan at all.

Then had come the reports from Allegiant General Pryde that a cruiser that looked very similar to the _Knife 9_ had attacked the shipping port of Riangatta, on Bonadan. Simultaneous reports of a sighting of the _Millennium Falcon_ in the same town also came up.

Put two and two together... and Ben panicked.

Whatever had happened on Bonadan, the Kylo part of him knew that his Knights had to have been there on orders from _someone_... and that someone hadn't been him. He knew his Knights well enough that they wouldn't just lift off from Mustafar to go out for a jaunt and stretch their legs, or go for a joyride on their own. They lived by orders - orders given and orders received, particularly the latter. They would never have set foot off of Mustafar unless and until someone expressly told them to.

And who was that person? Ben didn't have a firm answer, even after he had refreshed the scanners on all the ships in the First Order fleet, combing for a holomessage bound for Mustafar. But if he had to take a guess, he figured it was Armitage Hux.

The ginger-haired weasel had always tolerated being under Kylo's thumb with barely concealed disdain. Blessed with the Force and also an inherent sense of foresight, Kylo had waited for Hux to try and make a mutinous move, but so far nothing had happened.

Well. Maybe this was it - an inferior officer presuming to give orders to whole battalion of Stormtroopers... and to Kylo's own elite brute squad.

Bonadan - a innocent world attacked without provocation, and that was tactically of no interest to the First Order - in flames. The Knights of Ren running amuck. And Rey was missing. What else would explain how there had been nary a peep from the Bond in days? Oh, Kylo could try and force the Bond open - and he was getting desperate enough that he was actively considering it - but he knew his and Rey's connection didn't work like that. Plus, it might place her needlessly in more harm than she likely already was.

Sealed off alone in his room, Ben wracked his brain, trying to figure out what to do. He didn't have enough proof to link the Knights, Rey and Hux all together. Even if that created a working narrative - Hux sending the Knights to capture Rey - what would Hux want with the Jedi?

Collapsing heavily into his easy chair, Ben let tears stream down his face. Tears of love and concern for Rey. Where was she? Did she miss him? The tears quickly grew hot with bitter anger as he thought of her former friends. Dameron, the pilot. The traitor, FN-2187. They had taken her prisoner, but what had they been _doing_? Had they done anything to try and keep her safe?

"So undisciplined. If you were able to calm your mind for at least five parsecs, Ben, you would be able to figure your love's situation out for yourself."

Ben's head snapped up. Enough time had passed that he had started to actually get used to _not_ hearing voices in his head. He was ready to yell and scream at his uncle for daring to choose this moment - his lowest point - to suddenly show up where he wasn't wanted and... what? Give him advice?

Except, Ben realized with a jolt, the voice he now heard _wasn't_ the voice of his uncle. Oh, it sounded similar... but it wasn't _exactly_ the same. This voice was ever-so-slightly deeper... and soothingly smoother.

When his gaze finally stopped monkey-camming around to settle in on the source of the voice, Ben found the blue and translucent form of a Force Ghost staring back at him. It was a man, with long and curly hair falling into his face that Ben surmised must have been rusty red in color and in life. The ghost had a handsome face, with a roguish smile that Ben had seen before... while looking at himself in the mirror.

But that didn't make any sense... did it?

"How did you know my name?" Ben asked warily.

The ghost chuckled. "I guess you don't recognize me, grandson."

"Grandson?" Ben's face roiled. "Don't call me that! You're not Vader! My grandfather's not young like you!"

The darn smirk only widened, and Ben was now reminded annoyingly of Luke. "Oh, so you would prefer this, then?" In the next moment, the handsome face was replaced with the most iconic of masks. And when the ghost spoke next, his voice had been distorted. "I'm very versatile, you know."

Ben sprang out of his seat in terror. "AHHHH!" He crawled backwards in a feeble attempt to get away from this poltergeist. He had waited years for the moment he would hear his grandfather's famous voice, except now that he had, Ben found the experience very nerve-wracking.

Vader's face disappeared just as quickly as it had come, replaced once again by that of the handsome youth. Only then did the pieces click into place for Ben.

"Anakin?" he breathed.

Anakin Skywalker's grin broadened. "The one and only. Now, if you're quite finished scrambling about like a child having a night terror, do as I say and focus your mind on your spouse."

"The Bond can't be opened..."

"I'm not talking about the Bond," Anakin cut across him, his tone unusually sharp. "I'm talking about her essence. Feel her presence in the Force."

Seating himself in a meditative position, Ben tried to. He tried to reach out and feel her smile. Hear her laugh. But his worry over her was getting in the way of truly clearing his mind. Straining, he sagged from the effort.

It was small comfort to know that Anakin didn't seem nearly as disappointed as Ben thought he would be. "I would have struggled to clear my mind too, if you grandmother was in Rey's position." Offering Ben a hand, he pulled his grandson to his feet. "She has been taken prisoner aboard the _Dominance_. Even now, she is being taken against her will by one of your treasonous officers..."

Ben's blood ran cold when the sexual context was not lost on him... then that same blood reheated just as rapidly, searing with rage. "Hux," he growled.

At Anakin's nod, Ben knew that his previous insight had served him well. "Hurry. I can manipulate the Force and midichlorians to prevent pregnancy, but not forever. If nothing is done, the granddaughter of the Emperor will conceive a new despot at the hands of a ginger cretin! A new despot, Ben!" he spurred his grandson on as Kylo raced for his TIE fighter.

* * *

The moment he was cleared to land in the hangar of the _Dominance_ , Kylo went on a tear.

His red lightsaber sputtering, he proceeded to cut down ever man, woman, officer, trooper in his path on a scorched-earth campaign through the bowels of the Star Destroyer. Tapping into her breathtaking essence in the Force, Ben could sense her as he was guided through the right corridors, but she was weak. Her own strength in the Force seemed to be compromised, which would explain a lot.

Coming upon the locked door behind which he could feel his love, Kylo plunged his lightsaber into the thick durasteel. When the stuff didn't melt fast enough, he proceeded to blast it apart with Sith lightning. Amidst the magma chunks of durasteel and charred shrapnel, he stepped inside.

Ben's stomach roiled with disgust and unbridled rage at how Hux was holding his wife's naked body against his, Rey thrown out in front of him like a human shield. Hux's triumphantly sneering face - belying the throbbing fear in his aura - was right next to Rey's, while on the other side of her head, a blaster was cocked against her temple. Her hands were twisted behind her back. A tiny scan of the room, and Ben spotted a pair of Force-proof cuffs open on the floor.

Seeing her husband, Rey shivered with happiness, sobbing with relief and terror. "Ben!" she whimpered. "Help me, Ben!"

"Tell him to drop his weapon," Hux hissed in her ear.

Ben's teeth bared. "Never..."

"Ben, sweetheart, just do it, please!" Rey gasped as Hux pressed the end of his blaster further into her temple. Ben realized with rage and horror that the barrel happened to be pressing right into the red welt where Finn had whipped Rey earlier, which only added to his wife's discomfort. Rey's eyes were positively wide with fear.

Ben was uncategorically paralyzed with rage that the talentless worm Hux had managed to outmaneuver him. Had somehow managed to subdue and rape a deeply powerful Force-sensitive, while he himself possessed not a drop of midichlorians. Judging from the ferally exultant sneer on Hux's face, he sadistically took great pleasure in both accomplishments.

"Drop. the saber. Ren," Hux growled. The barrel of the blaster pressed in further still, and Rey yelped in pain. Ben's face shattered, which only made Hux smile even more widely.

"I WON'T!" Ben bellowed. "If you have something to say, Hux, then damn well get on with it - or are you too fucking yeller?"

Hux scowled, looking like a petulant child at not being able to order Ren around as he so often had fantasized. But he still held all the cards. As long as this blaster remained trained on the Empress, he could be sure that godforsaken lightsaber would not come within a hair's-breath of him.

"Here's how it's gonna go..." Hux started. "You will surrender your title of Supreme Leader to me. I will be reasonable enough to keep you and your little whore together - she is married, as I understand it..." He grinned at Rey licentiously. "Locked up in prison together, you may build a meager life together as you please. And then... when I call for her, she will come and give herself to me. And bear my children... if she has not yet conceived already..."

Rey was shaking with loathing. "You _monster_..." she hissed vehemently. The blaster's barrel pushed against her skull again, Finn's mark looking in danger of popping.

Ben thought fast. He wished that the Force could somehow help them out of this, but he feared that no matter what he or Rey tried, either one or both of them would end up dead. They had never felt this trapped since the bridge of the _Supremacy_ with Snoke...

And, recalling how he and Rey had emerged from that particular jam, coupled with something he had read about Force Bonds while trying to keep from driving himself to distraction worrying about his missing Rey, Ben got an idea.

But to pull it off, he needed to keep Hux talking.

"What will you do with me... Supreme Leader?"

Hux smirked wickedly, positively gleeful. "You will be my servant, you egotistical little brat. I will summon you at any time of day..."

And Hux was off to the races, monologging about how perfect his life would be once in command. Ben let him run his mouth, now sending a thought to Rey.

_Rey, honey... I have an idea, but you're gonna have to trust me, OK?_

He was relieved when she felt her thoughts brush back against his, even as she gave away nothing on her face.

_I'm going to pass something to you... through our Bond. When you catch it, get ready to attack, OK? You'll know what to do._

Her eyes told him she understood. They would have to do this without moving, otherwise Hux would be alerted.

Happily, that was where the Force came in.

Without using his hands, Ben used the Force to levitate a blaster out of his rear pocket, keeping the weapon floating behind his back. Moving his free hand infinitesimally to just get enough fingers around the handle, he then let it drop...

Into the void so that it reappeared in Rey's waiting hand, concealed between her back and Hux.

If Hux felt anything new between his and Rey's bodies, he didn't notice. Ben could tell from Rey's wide eyes that she had caught her husband's gift. His eyes blinked once to serve as a nod.

_Three... two... one..._

Turning the blaster so that it pointed right into Hux's stomach, Rey snarled as she fired, emptying the chamber into the evil rapist's flesh. Hux howled in pain and shock as he stumbled backward, Rey throwing her naked body under the cot as Ben leapt forward, swinging his saber in a wide arc. Hux's own blaster had dropped from his hand in the confusion, which Rey now summoned into her own palm with the Force and took aim. Desperate, Hux actually threw out his hand, as if he could conjure the Force at his will and magically make his blaster reappear in his grasp. He actually thought he could use the Force... ? Ben nearly laughed as he landed hard on Hux and knocked him to the ground.

Then it was all over, Ben letting his Kylo loose as he proceeded to hack and dismember Hux into hundreds of pieces, the horrid screams from his traitorous subordinate peetering off after a time. Under the cot, Rey turned her face away, wincing.

Straightening up, sweating, Ben turned to face his wife. In tears, she crawled out from under the cot and made to run into his arms.

"Change," he ordered her shortly, although he appreciated the view she was giving him very much.

Rey threw on her ruined clothing, face burning with shame, and taking her hand, the couple proceeded to run through the _Dominance_ , which was now in chaos. Without enough crew to man it, it would soon go down into space, which was just fine with Ben. No one still alive bothered with the Jedi or Supreme Leader as they made a break for the escape pod bay.

"Get in!" Ben helped his wife into one, and readied the launch codes. Glancing back to her through the round hole, he panted, "Find the Resistance in the Force and plot the pod's course there. I'll find you!"

Rey looked stricken. "I won't leave without you!" she cried.

"It's not just Hux, Rey!" Ben's eyes were wild but determined. "If the First Order is to collapse, then they all have to be taken down - Pryde, the Knights. I can do that if I stay on the inside!"

Something different passed over Rey's expression - a look of mistrust at his words that he hadn't seen in a good long while. His face broke.

"Please believe me. I would never lie to you."

At last, she nodded. "But Ben... Mmmm!"

Her voice died in her throat as Ben suddenly pulled her to him and kissed her wildly on the lips. His hands splayed her skull haphazardly as he grabbed it with those large mitts and yanked her close. For a moment, there was just dry pressure, but then with a growl, Ben worked Rey's mouth open in a hot, messy rhythm, urging his tongue against hers. Rey closed her eyes and kissed him back fiercely, wanting to tug his body into the escape pod with her...

But Ben was too smart for that. Yanking out of the kiss so abruptly, he nearly sucked Rey's tongue out of her mouth, he closed the escape pod and launched it into the dark expanse.

"No! NO!" Rey's hands slapped the glass, which now reflected her stricken face, streaked with tears. "BEN!"

When she had cried herself out, she finally sat to meditate and search for another familiar presence in the Force. Finding it, she seized onto it, despite all that had passed between them.

_Finny..._

She thus plotted the pod's course for a jungle world lightyears away.


	15. Finny Knows Best

**Chapter 15: Finny Knows Best**

The impact from the falling space object landing on the jungle world of Ajan Kloss caused an earthquake that shook the Resistance from their bunks early one morning. Rushing to the crash site, Poe Dameron, Finn and their comrades found a large crater, at the center of which was the wreckage of a smoking First Order escape pod. And emerging from that escape pod was Rey.

Reuniting with her friends was awkward, to say the least. The last time she had seen them, she had been their prisoner. Despite this glaringly obvious fact, Poe seemed unconcerned that the questioning of loyalties had happened at all. For the pilot, there appeared to be no deeper reflection over all that had ensued before and on Bonadan. No regret, no remorse, no revaluation of his actions whatsoever. As Zorri had been nothing more than a conscripted, innocent bystander, Rey was able to patch things up with her the easiest and quickest.

It was Finn, however, who seemed to be the one most eager to smooth things over. Leaving behind a burning Bonadan, he explained that they had tried to search for and pursue the _Knife 9_ , but without a tracker already in place, trying to find one ship amidst all the stars was like trying to find a needle in a Dantooine haystack. Failing that, and with new warrants out for Han Solo's ship, the last of the Resistance had gone into hiding to regroup. Zorri had been the one to find this out-of-the-way jungle planet. The _Falcon_ 's water lines had been repaired and replenished, it had been refueled, restocked. Leia had sent out a beacon call to arms, and new recruits had already begun to arrive. Along with some familiar faces that had mercifully survived the bombing on Canto Bight and managed to book passage off-world: Kaydel Kol Connix. Maz Kanata.

For all of this, Rey took it in silently. And though her heart melted at how sweet Finn was trying to be, the memory of the violence he had wrought on her stung just as the scar he had left her with stung when under the barrel of Hux's blaster. She wanted to forgive him, he was certainly making more of an effort than Poe to seek it, but she just... couldn't. So as much as it pained her, she kept her distance and whenever possible remained quiet.

Needless to say, Rey's hesitance to let bygones be bygones ate away at Finn, to the point where it led him towards being angry with her all over again. He was especially irked by how Rey seemed to mope about for nearly all the hours of the day, like she was pining.

Finn knew for whom she was pining. She was pining for _him_. Kylo Ren. And he didn't like it one bit.

The last straw came when Rey, in one of the few instances where she appeared willing to speak more than one or two words to Finn, wasted away such a rare opportunity by confiding in Finn all her feelings about Ben.

"He's out there, trapped in the First Order and I can't get to him, Finny!" she bemoaned. "I need him here with me."

"Can't imagine why you would want that," Finn grunted, barely able to keep the envy out of his voice. "He's brought you nothing but trouble, Rey. You're better off without him."

"No," Rey shook her head. "He loves me!"

And that's when Finn snapped.

"Loves you? Oh, come on, Rey, that's demented! This is why you never should have left. Dear, this whole romance that you've invented just proves you're to naive to be here."

Part of him knew that was gaslighting her. Part of him knew that he was tunneling his hole deeper just as he had been trying to dig himself out. The majority part of Finn - the jealous and resentful part who felt like he had lost his best friend, and that there was blame to share in creating that casualty - didn't care.

"Why would he like you? Come on now, really! Look at you - you think that he's impressed? Don't be a ninny - come with Finny... Finny knows best -"

"NO!" Rey's voice rang out sharply, her eyes steely.

Finn blinked. "No? Oh... I see how it is..."

He was satisfied that the defiance faded from her eyes.

"Rey Solo knows best, Rey Solo's so mature now. Such a clever, grown-up miss. Rey Solo knows best - fine, if you're so sure, now, go ahead and give him _this_!" And he pulled the hilt from his rucksack.

"How did you...?" Rey gasped. She had almost forgotten that she had dropped her lightsaber when she was captured on Bonadan.

" _This_ is what he wants!" Finn screamed at her. "Don't let him deceive you! Give it to him, watch, you'll see!"

"I will!" Rey snapped, glaring as she caught the tossed saber.

"Trust me, my dear - that's how fast he'll leave you. I won't say I told you so! No, but Rey, she knows best. So if he's such a dreamboat, go and put him... to the test!"

Watching him storm off, Rey looked panicked. "Finny, wait!"

"If he's lying, don't come crying... Finny knows best!" And he left her alone in an empty jungle clearing.

* * *

The more she analyzed Finn's latest outburst, the more Rey realized that - at least in one respect - he had been justified. He truly had tried to make up with her, and although his mockery of her and Ben's love had been out-of-line, it had come from a place of genuinely being concerned for his friend. Concerned that her love for Ben was making her blind. In some ways, it already had - she had kept her new romance from him...

So it was that she followed Finn around the base a few days later, trying to apologize as he now gave her the silent treatment.

"Finny... I apologize." No response. She tried again. "I'm sorry... I was wrong." She was not apologizing for loving Ben - she would never apologize for that. But she _was_ apologizing for keeping secrets from him, her best friend.

"What can I say that will make you feel better?" Rey implored. "What can I say that will make you like me better?"

Finn suddenly whirled to her with a snap, so that she nearly walked into him. There was something wild and unfamiliar in his eyes. Desperate. "Would you like _me_ better if I just grabbed you, threw you down, kissed you from head to toe?"

She stared at him, mouth agape. Oh, Force... How long had he...? How had she never known...?

Her heartbroken face must have said it all, for Finn deflated, defeated. "Go ahead," he mumbled. "You can tell... _him_ we're just best friends." His eyes rose to meet hers again, distress in them as he asked, "We are still best friends, aren't we?"

"Ohhhh..." Letting out an exasperated sigh, Rey buried her face in his shoulder with a sentimental smile. Then, still beaming affectionately, she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him - first on his cheek, then another chaste one on his mouth. Moving past him and away, she was startled when she felt Finn grab her hand.

"Rey..." And she ached to see the tears in his eyes, streaming down his face. "I'm so sorry... for all of it..." Staring in shame, he brushed a tentative finger across the scar where he had struck her. "What did I do to you?"

Her own eyes misty, Rey smiled with love and mercy. "I forgive you," she murmured. And she meant it. "Now, forgive yourself."

Finn broke down weeping, pulling her into his arms. Rey felt herself fall limp against him, nestling with a loving smile into his warmth. He pressed a kiss to her temple.

"I love you."

Rey beamed, thrilled to have her best friend back. "I know."


	16. The Truth

**Chapter 16: The Truth**

Rey's spirits were only further bolstered back in her rooms later that evening, when the Bond mercifully allowed her to see her husband for the first time a couple of weeks.

Ben was overjoyed to see her, but remained cryptic on exactly what he was doing deep behind enemy lines. Rey was only too willing to left him remain vague on these points; details would have made her fear for his safety. Nevertheless, she was proud of him - in working as a double agent, he could bring the First Order down without firing a shot. And once done, she and he could be together forever and in peace.

Neither husband nor wife could help, however, their minds wandering back to the last time they had seen each other, when they had thought they were going to die from Hux's quest for revenge. Rey could only cry as she thought back to what she went through at the hands of that ginger-haired monster, and Ben held her as she wept into his tunic.

"He said I would give birth to the new Emperor... He called me Empress, granddaughter of the Emperor..." Thankfully, a pregnancy had not come to pass; she had checked with a sweet-faced medic named Dr. Kalonia not long after crash-landing on Ajan Kloss. The pregnancy test had come back negative.

But it was Hux's words that refused to leave Rey's mind, and she peered tearfully up into Ben's face. "Why would he think I was Palpatine's grandchild, Ben? I don't even know what he was talking about!"

She felt her insides clench as, quite suddenly, Ben could not bring himself to look her in the eye. "Maybe because... you are descended from the Emperor."

Rey staggered back out of his embrace as if struck. "You... you knew about this?" she whispered breathlessly.

Ben nodded guiltily. "When I first... captured you on Takodana, I was intrigued by your talent in the Force and ordered that a sample of your blood be taken while you were still unconscious. In the craziness of Starkiller and after, I let that order fall out of my head until I'd completely forgotten about it. Then, not long after Crait, I overheard one of my Admirals talking about the blood results coming back, linking you to the Emperor. Evidently, Hux eavesdropped too." He flinched at the cold stare in Rey's eyes, and his own orbs pleaded. "Honey, I always meant to tell you, but I always either forgot to or the timing was never right. It pains me that you had to hear something so devastating like that from Hux, of all people. What I told you in the throne room about your parents was true... as true as I knew it to be at the time. Rey, my darling... I would never lie to you."

Her cold gaze didn't flinch or otherwise waver. "But you kept something from me," she pointed out.

"Not intentionally -"

"Isn't that the same thing as lying?"

Ben cringed as he realized she had him there. He could only hang his head in shame, but his eyes caught hers resolutely. "I'm sorry. I still love you - it doesn't matter to me where you come from; it never has."

Rey nodded flatly, acknowledging his answer, even if she wasn't quite ready to accept it. Even then, her heart cried out to forgive him, just as she had Finn.

At present, the best she could manage was, "I believe you." And she did. Clearly, Ben had never meant to hurt her.

Ben nodded, taking what he could get. They both sensed the Bond starting to fade for the time being. "I love you, sweetheart."

She cracked the tiniest smile. "I know."

As soon as he was gone, Rey let out a shuddering breath. She missed him already, the results of their heavy conversation being quickly displaced by the danger he was surely in, deep within the First Order.

Her love for her husband swelling, Rey squared her shoulders. This war keeping them apart had to end. The sick merry-go-round between the Jedi and the Sith had to stop. If Ben could not safely come to her yet... well, then just as before with the _Supremacy_ , she would go to him.


	17. Won't Leave You This Time

**Chapter 17: Won't Leave You This Time**

The circle-the-wagons moment when Kylo arrived at Vader's castle on Mustafar could best be described as macabre.

The Knights of Ren were groveling and in danger of wetting themselves when their Master strode in, furious that they had dared to accept and carry out orders on behalf of someone else. Kylo used the insubordination as a teachable moment - after flinging his Knights in every direction and shocking them with Force lightning, he calmly informed them that the _Dominance_ had been downed, Armitage Hux was dead, and the Jedi girl had escaped. Roughly translated, the Knights' little sojourn over to Bonadan had basically amounted to nothing.

Well, that wasn't exactly true. In fact, it was worse, as the fiasco on Bonadan had done more than garner a net neutral effect. It had garnered a net negative effect. To add to their humiliation, Kylo made his Knights recount in excruciating detail exactly what had happened on Bonadan. They had tracked the _Falcon_ from the Moddell sector to the harbor world, and attempted to kill Rey from a distance by blowing up the main fishing wharf. When that didn't work, the Knights landed on world and surrounded her, leading to a forced surrender. The one snag had been the loss of Axel, at the hands of some busybody bounty hunter who had gotten in the way. The casualty only added to Kylo's displeasure - Axel had been his best Knight, and he could only imagine the indignity of being brought down by bounty hunting scum. Maker, what a shitshow.

Off to one side, Allegiant General Pryde took in the come-to-Kylo moment silently and placidly. But the message was meant just as much for him, too: don't cross Kylo Ren or you'll end up like Hux.

Now, as a disquieting evening fell over the lava planet, Kylo reclined in his grandfather's throne, Pryde standing off the one armrest. Kylo's Knights took positions around him on a maze of catwalks crossing the expanse of a river of lava, which flowed through the structure. The castle itself straddled the banks of the river where Darth Vader had been cut down by Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.

That straddling now seemed to personify the two banks of Kylo's split soul. On the one bank was the soothing rush of power - needed after the terror of not being in control and watching your wife held hostage. On the other bank was the reminder that no, he had to get out of here - he had to bring down the First Order and walk away so he could start a new life with his beloved spouse.

 _Rey_. Just thinking of her, Kylo felt her presence in the Force... but it wasn't because the opening of the Bond was imminent. No, he felt her because she was _here_ , on this planet, fast approaching. He could see her, in the hallway just beyond.

The hydraulic door rushed up and open with a hiss, to reveal Ben's beautiful, fierce wife, the blue plasma of Anakin's saber ignited.

Kylo stood from his throne, mouth open in shock in an unusual moment of vulnerability. Every muscle in his body chilled as his own Knights tensed, fingers twitching over their weapons. Pryde also appeared taken aback.

"It's the Jedi! Kill her, my Lord!"

Kylo didn't move, his eyes only for the beautiful woman standing across the catwalk from him. Now, more than ever, he wished he could silently communicate his love and panic for her through the Force... except at least half of his Knights were Force-senstive and might be tipped off. He definitely couldn't give anything away on his face, anymore than perhaps he already had. He had no choice but to communicate to her with his eyes, while keeping the rest of his expression apathetic. _Don't, sweetheart. Please. Don't force the issue. Turn. Run away._

Unfortunately, he knew his Rey better than that. She stood her ground, gazing at him with fierce determination, loyalty, support and love. The perfect embodiment of a wife committed to her marriage, committed to her husband. Tears pricked at her eyes, and she tried to keep them at bay.

"I won't leave you!" she cried out. "Not this time."

Ben's heart broke. He couldn't run to her, lest he wanted to give the game away and place them both back in danger. Tragically, he still had a part to play, and he had to play it well, as much as it agonized him to. Igniting his blood-red lightsaber, and hoping that the hidden meaning in his eyes was not lost to her amidst the acting in his face and posture, he growled, "Then... you will die."

He hadn't given the direct order, but his Knights interpreted it as though he had. All five now swooped in to take Rey down, as if they had learned nothing from Bonadan. Once again surrounded on all sides, Rey froze with fear and uncertainty, her eyes locking with her husband's in a desperate plea.

"BEN!" she cried. _Help me!_

At that moment, glancing to his immediate left, Ben saw the spirit of Anakin Skywalker, his eyes as pleading as those of his wife. Though he couldn't hear the words with how his own hearing felt like it was underwater, Ben saw Anakin's lips form the words and registered them.

_I failed to save the love of my life. You don't have to._

Ben's eyes bulged with terror.

"STOP!"

But the Knights didn't stop, although some of them did jump, startled, at their Master's bellowing outburst.

That wouldn't be the last surprise, as Ben Force leapt into the midst of his Knights, landing at his wife's side and attacked. He sliced off Sirimus Ren's machete arm first, leaving a bleeding stump, before stabbing him straight through the chest. Spinning, he blocked Proximo Ren's overhead swipe with a pair of sai. Throwing out a hand, Ben used the Force to propel Proximo off the catwalk so that he fell with a scream into the lava river below. Behind him, he felt the Force presence of Vlaniut Ren get abruptly snuffed out as Rey viciously dismembered all his limbs and left him to bleed out on the metal.

This entire exchange took place in seconds, as Ben and Rey now turned to face one remaining opponent apiece, each launching into a reverse leap so that husband and wife now fought back-to-back. Tazla Ren and Epsilon Ren circled the couple, the former with a taser and the latter with a bowcaster.

Activating his jet pack, Epsilon launched into the air, making straight for Kylo. He opened fire with the bowcaster, Ben blocking all the blaster bolts with his saber.

Save one, which hit him squarely in his saber arm. Growling through the pain, Ben Force leapt towards Epsilon. Twisting into a somersault at the last second, he slashed through the liquid fire in his arm, turning the jet pack propulsor into a shower of sparks. Epsilon spun out, crashed headlong into the castle wall, before dropping past the catwalk and out of sight towards the lava below.

Hearing a scream, Ben spun about to find Tazla electrocuting Rey. His wife leapt back with a scream. Thinking fast, Ben called through the Bond.

_Let her come to you again._

Rey nodded. When Tazla charged once more, Rey blocked the taser with her lightsaber, turned under and trapped the Knight in a chokehold, turning the electric weapon on its own Master. Tazla's body spazzed under the sparks until Ben leapt forward and stabbed his red blade into her side.

Tazla dropped to the ground and lay still. For a moment, all that could be heard was the panting of the two Jedi, as they gazed at each other.

Then, letting out strangled, twin gasps, Ben and Rey rushed to each other, embraced and passionately kissed.

Wrapped in each other's arms, only the Force alerted Rey to another threat. When she popped her eyes open after melting into her husband's long kiss, it was almost too late.

"Ben!"

PING! An enraged Pryde sent a blaster bolt straight into Ben's side. Grunting, the ex-Supreme Leader dropped to the catwalk. Letting out a feral scream, Rey was on the Allegiant General before he could so much as raise his gun again, bringing down her blue plasma down on his head, his arms, everywhere again and again and again. Within moments, the bludgeoned officer lay sprawled and morbidly quiet.

Whirling around, a stricken Rey fell to her knees at Ben's side and gathered him up in her arms. "My poor darling... I'm so sorry..." she whimpered, and she cradled his head in her lap, her tears pattering onto his face like sweet rain.

Ben was shivering violently, gargling, struggling to get air. His adoring eyes only for Rey, he reached up trembling fingers to brush her face. "Rey... I told you not to... you came back..."

Tamping down a sob, Rey smiled tearfully at him. "Of course I came back! What kind of wife would I be if I didn't come back for my husband?"

Ben's breathing was becoming more labored. "Maybe... maybe it's better this way, sweetheart. Even if I made it... home, they'd never let us be together..."

"Ssssssssh..." Rey crooned. "Don't talk like that! You'll be all right..." Her throat clogged up. "We're together now - always will be, you'll see..."

"At least... I got to see you... one last time..."

Snuggling him closer, Rey slowly sang to him:

" _We are home... we are where we shall be forever... Trust in me, for you know I won't run away... From today, this is all that I need and all that I need to say... Home should be where the heart is. I'm certain as I can be: I've found home. You're my home. Stay... with... me..._ "

"Rey... I..." Ben was fading fast.

"Yes?" she sobbed. She froze as he slumped in her arms. "No... No, please! Please, don't leave me! Please..." Through her tears, she drew forth in a fierce whisper, "I love you... _I love you!_ "

Nothing responded to Rey's bitter sobs except the rushing of the lava below, as she nuzzled her face against his, resting her hands on his chest.

And then...

A golden glow emanated from Ben's side wound, the brightness and warmth of it spreading throughout his chest. Lifting her head, eyes widening in shock, Rey shrank back, watching intently.

The golden glow finally faded and Rey watched in awe as her husband stood, healthy and strong. Beaming at her, he took her hands and helped her to her feet, amused by how she was staring at him as if she'd never seen him before.

"Rey..." he murmured. "It's me."

Rey's face broke out into the most beaming smile as she reached out to touch his face. "It _is_ you!"

Beaming into each other's eyes, Rey and Ben leaned in and shared another long kiss.

As soon as they did, the Force itself exulted, engulfing the couple in bright and swirling light of every color. Closing her eyes blissfully, Rey clutched Ben tightly, and she felt him do the same to her. And then, high above them, fireworks peeled, shrieking into the skies above Vader's castle and Mustafar. Here, where Anakin Skywalker had first knocked the Force out of equilibrium, his grandson and granddaughter-in-law had brought Balance back.

"Uhhhh..."

Dreamily breaking the kiss at last, Ben and Rey's gazes snapped as one to the sound. At their feet, the form of Tazla Ren was stirring on the ground and moaning, still alive. Biting her lip in concern, and confident that the downed Knight was far from strong enough to pose a threat, Rey knelt at her side. She felt and found a pulse. Her life essence in the Force was also there.

Ben studied his wife and her natural compassion. Feeling a rumble, he glanced about anxiously. It would not be long yet before the last edifice to Vader came tumbling down, willed on by the Force. He had no desire to be here when it did. "Rey... there's no time."

Rey glanced up to him. "She seems to be all right." And indeed, Tazla had taken the weakest hits out of all the Knights. Other than a lightsaber stab wound - non-fatal - and enduring high amounts of electricity, she had a chance at surviving, though an outside one.

"Leave her, or we'll never make it!" If there was ever a point where Ben truly wanted to let the past die, this was it.

But Rey held firm. "Her fate will be the same as ours."

* * *

Ben had no choice but to acquiesce and carry Tazla back to where Rey had parked the _Falcon_. Now hurtling the freighter through deep space, Ben sat back at his father's controls with Rey in his lap, happily kissing. Drawing away from her lips softly, Ben murmured,

"What's your favorite flower?"

Rey threw back her head and laughed, playing with the nape of his neck. "Hardly any flowers grew on Jakku when I was growing up. But I did save a rose once and tried to water it." She paused, peering at him. "What's yours?"

Ben grinned. "A daisy." Rey beamed. A moment later, though, her gaze dimmed into something contemplative, as she asked:

"How is Lando your uncle?"

Ben sighed wistfully. "He was my godfather. My dad's best friend. He'd sometimes come fly with dad and I when I was little."

Thinking back to the hotel in Canto Bight going up in smoke, Rey squeezed his hand. "I'm sorry."

"Urrrrrrrr..."

A groan from Tazla made the couple glance back to where she was hanging by a thread in the functioning med cot - now feeding her critical nutrients and performing what surgery it could on her wounds. Ben frowned. He still wasn't sure about Rey's decision to rescue her, and even less sure that Tazla would make it. He hadn't expected for any to limp away from the First Order other than himself - not even himself.

The thought reminded him off one last loose thread he would have to snip off, and reaching around Rey, he gunned the thrusters. "We need to strike a final blow against the First Order, before it finds the Resistance."

"OK," Rey nodded. "Who is it?"

"Admiral Puesey. Abord the _Finalizer_."

* * *

**A/N: Elements of this come from Chapter 21 of jp2187's lovely AO3 _Star Wars: Legacy of the Chosen One_.**


	18. Stormtrooper Rebellion

**Chapter 18: Stormtrooper Rebellion**

Finn peered nervously through his binoculars as the imposing First Order Star Destroyer appeared in the atmosphere above Ajan Kloss. At his side, Poe was jittery.

"I'll call the other pilots to their ships. We gotta get in our X-Wings and blow that hunk up!"

"Are you crazy?" Zorri lay a hand on his arm, her pretty face frowning in deep concern. "It's a suicide run! You'd be killed!"

Poe's wild eyes did not seem to take in her words as he spun to his new lover, taking Zorri by the waist. "No matter what happens, sweetheart, I love you!" Yanking Zorri close, he kissed her thoroughly; Zorri froze in shock for a moment before she melted, kissing him back. Drawing away, Poe prepared to dash off. "I'll round up BB-8!"

"Wait."

Finn's firm voice made Poe take pause. He could see his buddy turning the gears over in his head, before slowly turning to his comrade. "I might have a way of bringing down that Destroyer without firing a shot."

Poe gawped. "How?"

"If we can find the right transponder codes, we might be able to make contact with them. But, first... let's relay my plan to the General."

* * *

Leia Organa warily approved the plan, deciding to place her trust in Finn before risking any more lives in an air assault. With Connix's help, the Resistance managed to tap into the _Finalizer_ 's frequency codes. Sending a prayer to the Force, Finn picked up the comlink.

"This is Stormtrooper FN-2187 of the Resistance. State your assigned unit and serial number."

A long, pregnant pause on the other end. "This is Stromtrooper JN-9403 of the First Order, Engineering Corps. Protocol requires that I patch you through to the officer in command, Admiral Rutherford Puesey."

"No!" Finn said sharply. "Do not patch me through to your Admiral!"

There was a strained silence on the other end, broken only the crackling of the radio. Seeing as he had the attention of the voice - a woman, by her tone - Finn pressed on:

"Aren't you tired of following orders? Of being a nameless face, a pawn in the First Order's games? Don't you want to take control of your own destiny, as I did?"

The silence on the other end of the line was unnerving.

"You have a chance to be brave and fight for the freedom of the galaxy," Finn continued. "If you really want to contribute something important to this universe, tell all your brothers and sisters to lay down their arms in mutiny!"

Beside Finn, Poe and Zorri and Leia were all watching him with their jaws dropping. This was his plan? It would never work!

...Or would it?

After what seemed like an eternity, the woman's voice appeared back on the line. "As you command... FN-2187." Then, to her comrades in the background. "All together, lads! Lay down your weapons! Halt this ship immediately!"

Through the line, there was a sudden explosion of blaster fire and Finn's heart went into his mouth. Had he just led a battalion of his former comrades-in-arms to their deaths?

Hands to her mouth, Zorri suddenly gasped and pointed. "Look!"

Glancing up into the sky, Finn watched in horror as the nose of the _Finalizer_ began to shift and point down, sinking towards the planet as it was then further pulled in by Ajan Kloss's atmosphere.

"Clear the area!" Poe bellowed. Sweeping Zorri off her feet, he carried her away, much to her objections. Finn grabbed Leia and tugged her along as fast as they could go.

Reaching a grassy hillside, the Resistance watched in horror as the _Finalizer_ crashed down on the planet's surface, nose-first. Explosions rocked the ship, but a shell of the structure emerged intact as the ship grounded to a halt. In the distance, Finn spotted a hydraulic hatch choosing open and he dashed forward, Poe and the others on his heels.

A dark-skinned woman in a white-plated uniform stepped out in the lead of about thirty Stormtroopers. Her hair was in frizzy poofs around her head. Nodding to Finn, she gave a toothy smile.

"My name is... Jannah."

Finn shakily grinned back. "I'm Finn," he nodded in respect.

There was a sudden howl as Chewbacca pointed towards the heavens. Following his gaze, Finn's heart alighted with even further hope.

"Rey's back!" The Resistance cheered and ran after the _Falcon_ , coming in for a landing.

Finn had been adamantly opposed to Rey going out after Ben, at first. But seeing as he couldn't stop her, and finally understanding her deep love for the man, he had finally permitted it reluctantly.

The Resistance and Jannah's battalion surrounded the taxing _Falcon_ , cheering as the gangplank was lowered. Rey soon strode down to cheers, but these quickly turned to screams of terror when the others saw whose hand she was holding.

"It's Kylo Ren!"

"Someone get him!"

Leaping in front of her husband, eyes stricken, Rey begged, "Don't shoot! Don't shoot! He's OK! He's... he's come back."

Poe didn't lower his gun. "He must submit himself to arrest and stand trial!"

"STOP!" An authoritative voice cried out. "Please, don't hurt my son!"

The crowd parted to let Leia Organa walk through with her cane. Upon seeing her, Ben began to shake in paralyzing fear. The closer she came, to then up the gangplank, the more violent the shaking got.

Tears streamed down Ben's face at the thought of his five-foot nothing mother coming any closer, no doubt to give him the greatest tongue-lashing of his miserable life.

"M-Mother..."

Leia didn't let him finish.

Casting her cane to the ground, she threw her arms around Ben's middle and squeezed. After a moment of freezing in utter astonishment, Ben let forth a sob and tentatively put his arms around her in return. Watching the sight, Rey tearfully beamed, laughing as Finn came racing up to her.

"We took down the _Finalizer_ , Rey! Oh, Rey, I knew you'd come back!"

Stepping out of the hug, Rey smiled at him radiantly. "You've done so much for me already, my friend, but I must ask your help one more time."

"Yes. Anything!" Finn watched as Rey turned away to slip back into the ship... only to then draw up short as he observed the Jedi carrying another woman in her arms in an impressive show of strength. The unconscious woman was dressed all in black.

"This is Tazla. She's wounded and a former Knight of Ren. She can't hold on much longer; I knew she'd be safe here... Please, can you treat her?"

Finn barely nodded, his expression leery. "This way," he waved Rey on.

"FN-2187." Finn stilled at the sound of his Stormtrooper number coming from _that_ voice. He had barely turned around before his head reeled back as something hard collided with his face. Blood spurting from his nose, he heard Rey's scream.

"Ben! _Stop_!"

Staggering back, eyes blinking, Finn stared in surprised shock at the man once known as Kylo Ren. " _That's_ for pistol-whipping my wife, you... you..."

"Ben Solo, stop this right this minute!" Rey screeched, stamping her foot. "I've forgiven Finny for that..."

"No need to defend me, Rey," Finn cut across her suddenly. "I reckon I deserved that." A slight pause, and then Finn reared back his leg and kicked Ben in the shin. He would have gone for a punch of his own, but he had a feeling the man had the drop on him physically. Rey gasped in concern as Ben actually doubled over in pain.

" _That's_ for abducting me into a fascistic regime!"

There was long, pregnant pause. Then, locking eyes with Finn, Ben actually chuckled. "All's fair in love and war."

And then, with Rey between them looking on in astonishment, the two men actually shook hands. Turning to Poe, Ben held out his wrists.

"Commander, if you still wish, you may place me under arrest."

Poe's eyes gleamed. "It would be my pleasure."

"No!" Leia and Rey swooped in to flank Ben on either side, protecting him.

"Mother... Rey, my sweet: it's all right," Ben soothed. "Let them take me to prison." Taking Leia's hand, he kissed her knuckles. Then dipping his head, he captured Rey's lips with his. Her eyes drifted shut as she relaxed in his kiss.

Both in tears, the two Force-sensitive women watched as their son and husband was led away, whilst Finn carried Tazla Ren's body to the medical ward.


	19. Turncoats Commiserate

**Chapter 19: Turncoats Commiserate**

"Uhhhhhhh..."

Her vision came back slowly, by degrees. The muscles in her neck ached as she tried to turn her head, feeling something soft framing it underneath. A pillow?

Lashes fluttering open, she took in the white, sterilized environment - white walls, white gurney, white fluids stantion and packs of syringes feeding nutrients into her right arm.

Turning her head fully to the right, she quickly picked out the one thing in this strange version of heaven that wasn't white - a dark-skinned man, broad-shouldered and wearing a creamy tunic. His back was currently to her, checking some monitors and a table stocked with vials.

He had ripping muscles, Tazla noted. Long hair. And when he turned back to face her (he must have sensed her staring), she was struck by how handsome his face appeared. The kindness in his eyes.

"W...Where am I?" Tazla quietly murmured.

"You're our guest," the man shrugged simply. "Welcome to the Resistance, Tazla Ren."

Blinking, Tazla tried to sit up. A sharp pain in her abdomen caused her to wince and lie back down.

"How long was I out?" she muttered.

"Don't know," the man replied, pulling up a chair near her bed and sitting astride it backwards. "You'd have to ask Rey that."

Tazla's brows furrowed. "The... Jedi girl?" The last thing she remembered, that Jedi had managed to electrocute her with her own weapon, while her Master turned against her and gave her what should have been a fatal stab wound.

"Now, I don't know much of the details," the man was prattling on, "but apparently, Rey didn't want to just leave you for dead. You held out longer, compared to your other buddies. Even then, it was touch and go - the med cot on the _Millennium Falcon_ helped you hang on until you got here."

The _Falcon_? Oh no...

Tazla's head flopped into the pillows. Tilting her head to glance at him resignedly, she despaired. "They're going to imprison me, aren't they?" She couldn't believe it. She was a prisoner-of-war. She wished she had just died on that catwalk.

"Well, Poe hasn't made an arrest for you yet. But there are guards stationed outside your room around the clock. And there's also me - by order of Jedi Master Rey Solo."

Peering at him, Tazla suddenly recognized who this man was. "You're the turncoat trooper. FN-2187."

"I go by Finn now," Finn chuckled. "Turncoat trooper... never heard that one before. Traitor is much more common..." He seemed almost amused by this.

Tazla blinked. "I'm sorry... _Finn_." Her own voice shocked her. She had never felt beehoved to apologize for anything in years.

Finn turned back to monitoring Tazla's vitals. But every so often, he found himself sneaking glances at her. He had been watching her plenty while she was asleep, but could find a whole new appreciation in her features now that she was awake.

She was pretty, with a heart-shaped face. Hair rusty auburn in color. Full lips. Her eyes were the most piercing, ice-blue. Skin white and unblemished as snow.

Rummaging through the cupboards, Finn continued to busy himself before finally crossing back to the bed with a tray, carrying a mug of tea. Wordlessly, he held the drink out to Tazla.

"Think you can hold it on your own?"

Tazla tried to lift her hands, but she found they were numb. She sadly shook her head. Slowly, Finn scooped a calloused, strong hand underneath her head, lifting it from the pillow as he brought the rim of the mug to Tazla's lips. She sipped tentatively. The cafe burned her tongue and she cringed back, coughing a little.

"That's all right. It's hot." Finn's voice was still so unusually gentle. She eyed him warily, confused.

"Why are you being so kind to me?" Her voice was somewhere between a whisper and a croak.

Finn regarded her almost sadly, with sympathy. "Because someone was kind to me once. It's not easy to place your life in the hands of people you don't know if you trust."

Tazla gulped. "But I didn't," she continued to whisper. "I didn't have a say in the matter." She peered at him probingly. "But you did."

Finn nodded, pursing his mouth in a grim line. "That is true. I was able to make that choice. You weren't. But we're not gonna hurt you."

Tazla barely had enough strength to cock an eyebrow. "Not yet," she murmured darkly. She was almost satisfied when Finn didn't answer, but a chill overtook her body nonetheless. He squinted.

"Are you cold?"

She shook her head. Finding a threadbare blanket, he draped it over her anyway, before retaking his seat, once again backwards, muscular arms draped on the headrest.

"So: where are you from?"

Tazla eyed him mistrustfully. Finn shrugged. "You don't have to answer. It's just a simple question."

He'd all but given up that she would answer, until she finally got out:

"Ithor."

Finn cocked an eyebrow, gave her an encouraging smile. "Really? I've never been there."

She just scoffed. "What does it matter? It's not like I'm ever gonna see my homeworld again."

"It's still your homeworld. And it matters to _you_ ," Finn pointed out. "Ithor... what's it like?"

Another long silence before she answered.

"Green. Forests filled with tall redwoods as far as the eye can see. It's in the Ottega system, out in the Mid-Rim..." A wistful smile came over her face. Finn found he rather liked her smile. "The woods were beautiful in the spring time. Plants bloomed everywhere..." Her voice trailed off, fell. "At least, they did, until the First Order occupied the place." Tazla blinked back tears. "The few reservations on the planet, where I grew up... they were carpet-bombed. And the trees were logged and cut down to feed the Order's war machine. Most of my people had to relocate to nearby Borao. I had to watch it all happen... and I hadn't even been back there in years."

"How come?" Finn almost crooned.

Tazla smiled ruefully. "I was recruited to Luke Skywalker's Jedi training academy when I was very young. That's where I met Kylo... though I suppose he goes by Ben now."

"And what would you go by, if not Tazla?" Finn queried.

She stared at him, pretty lips agape. Again, Finn shrugged, as if the question didn't mean so much to him... though, really, it did.

Tazla gulped. "Emmary," she murmured quietly. The sounds and syllables felt foreign on her tongue after being dormant for so long. A single tear leaked from her eye. "My name is Emmary."

Finn cracked the smallest of smiles. "Beautiful."

Emmary couldn't help it. She blushed.

* * *

Finn spent the last several hours of his guard shift talking with Emmary. By the time Beaumont Kin had come to relieve him of his post, the ex-Stormtrooper didn't want to leave.

Something about her left Finn feeling very intrigued. An infamous Knight of Ren, one of Kylo's disciples... Rey hadn't told Finn much about what had happened on Mustafar, but he had to wager that Emmary was either very tough or very lucky to have made it out of there alive.

He supposed that every instinct in him should hate her, for the clusterfuck that had gone down on Bonadan alone. But even this was outweighed by the fact that she... had been one of Luke Skywalker's Jedi students. Was reared in the forests of Ithor... A truly fascinating background, indeed.

This, and the fact that she was the most striking woman Finn had ever seen. And she seemed so tired, so lonely... Filled with such hopelessness...

No doubt about it, her situation was grim, no matter how you looked at it. Emmary was under no delusions about that, or what would be her likely fate. All the same... Finn's heart clenched to think of it.

Somehow, his feet carried him in the direction of the Resistance base library. Commander D'Acy glanced up and smiled a greeting from where she was manning the front desk.

"Ah, Commander Finn! Can I do something for you?"

"Yes, I..." Finn cleared his throat. "Would you happen to have any texts on Ithor? Forest planet, Ottegga sector, Mid-Rim?"

D'Acy crinkily smiled. "I should hope so. Let me just dig around here..."


	20. Unforgiven

**Chapter 20: Unforgiven**

Rey let out a shaky breath as she raised her hand to the polished wood of the door leading into Poe Dameron's office. Three sharp knocks, and then she heard, "Come in."

Pushing the door to, Rey strode in with purpose. Her eyes flashed steely. Seeing her and her dark expression coming, Poe set down his papers with a sigh. The Jedi had insisted on an audience every day for the past standard week. "Rey -"

"I've come to petition on behalf of Ben Solo. Please, let him out. Can't you see he's sick?"

"He's an enemy combatant, and indicted on multiple charges! What would you have me do - let him go?"

"For time served and actions of bravery on behalf of the Resistance - yes!" Rey blasted.

Poe huffed out another breath. "Look, I know you care about him. I know Leia's been advocating for mercy. But I just can't -"

"What? Find it in your heart to show mercy?" Rey snorted. "Shocker."

Poe's eyes narrowed. "And what the kriff is _that_ supposed to mean?" he demanded.

"Oh, let's see. Would you like a list?" Rey started counting off on her fingers. "You took me prisoner and physically abused me when you thought I was aiding and abetting the enemy..."

"Finn was the one who caught you -"

"Yeah. Caught me kissing my husband -"

"We didn't know what might be... I was just following procedure..."

"Oh, and then there's, of course, you kissing me without my consent - I'm _married_ , thank you very much..."

"I thought we moved past that -"

"Oh, I did. Have you?"

Poe breathed in deep through his nose. "I'm with Zorri now. You know that."

"And in that regard, I am pleased for you," Rey clipped shortly. Her voice lowered. "But you still really hurt me, Poe. You held me captive, physically hurt me and tried to get me to endanger the man I love. I don't think we can come back from that."

Poe stared at her as if she had slapped him. "But... but you... you and Finn came back from that, and worse!"

Rey just regarded him sadly. "I've known Finny longer than I've known you. And he at least made an effort to ask for forgiveness. You... I can't say the same."

Poe appeared positively dazed. "What... what can I do?"

But the pity didn't leave Rey's face. "I don't think there's anything to be done," she murmured forlornly. She took a deep breath. "I will attend your wedding, for Zorri's sake; I will always be cordial, but beyond that... I don't want anything to do with you."

Poe's eyes filled with tears. "I understand..." His voice was quite small. As she turned away, his head snapped up to hers. "Rey: _please_..."

"Goodbye, Poe," Rey whispered. She closed the door behind her.

* * *

Back in the Resistance jailhouse, Rey kissed her husband through the bars of his cell, wetting his own face with her tears.

"Did I do the right thing? Or am I just being cruel?" she bemoaned.

Ben pursed his lips for a moment, deep in thought. "Only you can answer that for yourself, sweetheart." He eyed her hard.

"Has Poe earned forgiveness in your eyes?"

She slowly shook her head No.

"Would any animosity between you and Poe hurt Zorri or others around you?"

"I'd make sure it wouldn't, for her sake."

"Do you feel you are right? Are you in the right?"

Rey painfully nodded her head.

Ben smiled at her grimly, sadly. "Then, that's really all you need to know, my love."

Eyes brimming with tears, Rey kissed and kissed him until her lips were sore.


	21. Super Trooper

**Chapter 21: Super Trooper**

Finn hustled from the mess hall at dinner one night down to the medical ward and Emmary's room. He carried a package under one arm, and even though he was only going at a brisk power-walk, he felt winded. He didn't bother trying to deny it - he was anxious to see her again, as he had every day for the past two weeks.

Rounding the final corner leading to her hospital room, he met Wedge Antilles just coming off of his guard shift, and the younger man saluted him. Finn had arranged to remove the two guards normally stationed at Emmary's door days ago. She wasn't going anywhere, as she was still very weak, but gaining strength each day.

"Relieved of your post, Captain. I'll take over."

"Sure thing, Finn," Wedge winked, and ambled from the ward.

Finn entered the hospital, smiling warmly at Emmary. Her eyes widened with something that looked like happy relief, as she threw back the coverlets on her bed.

"I was afraid I wouldn't see you today," she crossed to him, her medical dress swishing at her ankles.

"I had to sign up for the night shift; it was all I could get," Finn told her apologetically. Smiling shyly, he held out the package. "This is for you."

Her icy blue eyes studied him with bemusement, as she tore off the brown paper Finn had hastily wrapped the gift in.

"I, uh... had to get it from the base library," Finn bashfully shoved his hands in his pockets.

Upon seeing the cover, Emmary gaped, sinking down onto her bed and opening to the first page. All at once, those beautiful blue pools glistened with tears and she clapped a hand to her mouth to stifle a sob.

Finn's stomach dropped. "You don't like it," he diagnosed.

"It's... it's _beautiful_!" Emmary wept, turning the pages and pouring over pictures of her homeworld - a expansive guide to Ithor. "It looks just like it did before the bombs fell... Look - there's the stream where Mama and I would wash our clothes... Hansenna Meadow, where I used to play..." Her hand was still at her mouth, now hiding a tearful smile.

Finn deflated in relief. "I'm glad you like it."

His voice seemed to remind Emmary that he was there. Glancing up at him, she stared, transfixed, setting the tome aside on the mattress and almost floating over to him.

"No one's... ever done anything like this for me before." She beamed wetly. "Thank you, Finn."

His answering grin could have lit up Ajan Kloss's sun. "You're welcome, Emmary."

She wasn't sure what made her do it. Maybe it was the Force, whispering in her ear to be brave. Or maybe she was too overcome with emotion over the kindness of this man whom, if their paths had crossed while she was still a Knight of Ren and he a Stormtrooper, she might have passed by him without a second glance. Whatever the reason, Emmary suddenly cupped Finn's face in her hands, mashed her face to his and kissed him.

She held the kiss, eyes floating shut, for a few moments before her senses came back to her and she staggered out of the locking of lips, gaping at what she had just done. Her face had turned even redder than her flowing hair.

"I... I..." she stammered. "I don't know what... I... I wanted to kiss you," she found that she was trying to explain herself. "I... I still want..."

Finn's lips suddenly crushed hers as he kissed Emmary back. He grabbed her head between both large hands, his fingers splayed awkwardly, haphazardly, as he backed her into the nearest wall. At first, there was just dry pressure, and then, with a low growl, he worked her mouth open in a hot, messy rhythm, urging her tongue against his. Emmary let her mouth fall open wider as she _moaned_ into his lips, letting his tongue push through. "Mmmmmm..." It had been years since she kissed anyone like this, had _been_ kissed like this - hard, desperate, sloppy.

Finn's breath was all at once hot on her neck, as he sent open-mouthed kisses of fire down her throat and jawline. Emmary threw her head back, hitting the wall, eyes bulging and her breasts heaving with every pant. Finn's toned body was pressed flush against hers, and the sliding of his abdominal muscles against her hips was driving her wild.

"O...open my gown," she panted.

His fingers trembled as they undid the ties at the back, letting the garment pool into a heap on the floor between them so that she stood naked before him. Seizing his hand, Emmary cupped it around her breast, sighing at the inhuman warmth she felt radiating from his skin. His thumb found her nipple and squeezed, bringing it to painful tenderness.

"Your mouth. Put your mouth on me," Emmary gasped.

Finn's lips slobbered her right breast, tongue licking around the purple aeola even as his fingers deftly kneaded her left. Emmary clutched him close, groaning incessantly. She hitched her thigh around his calves, and taking her by her hips, Finn lifted her off her feet, so that she had to fold her limbs about his torso. Grabbing for his face, Emmary kissed him hard and frantically, tilting Finn's head back and peppering her lips along every bit of exposed skin that she could reach.

"Mmmmm... Finn... Bed... Hmmmm... Bed me, Finn."

He threw them both down onto the mattress with such energy, they nearly overshot it and rolled off the other side. Pinned underneath him, Emmary eagerly spread her legs, Finn helping to push her knees apart so he could nestle between them. He was kissing her lips, her closed eyelids, her cheeks, and she couldn't help but giggle. She held his lips in place with her own, still smiling.

"Make love to me!" she whispered into his mouth, breathless. Hands eagerly grabbing his buttocks, her nails digging into the firm rear, Emmary bit her lip shyly as she guided Finn into her.

The moment he breached her womanhood, her eyes bulged and she arched her back against him with a gasp.

"Emmary..." Finn groaned, flicking his hips. "You're so _gorgeous_ , I... I... what do I do? What do I do?" he babbled. He had absolutely no experience with this. Emmary felt her body flush pink, pleased that she was the first to have this strong, young specimen of a man.

"Thrust... Ooooh, yes, like that... You won't hurt me..." Her thighs cramped from the pleasure he was already giving her. "Gods, yes..."

The hospital bed creaked dangerously as Finn and Emmary worked up a rhythm, beads of sweat dripping off of the man's brow and onto Emmary's equally saturated skin. The Knight of Ren keened into him with breathy moans.

"Uhhh... Huhhhh... Hmmmm... Mmmmm... Ohhhhh..." Emmary's body seized, her walls clenched sooner than expected. " _Fuck_ , Finn!" She came all around him, writhing.

Finn didn't last much longer after that. "Emm... Em, I - I can't... _Shit_!" He ejaculated all he had into her before collapsing, his paramour letting out an adorable little squeak as his body nearly crushed her.

* * *

The moon bathed them in an ethereal glow as Finn and Emmary cuddled and kissed deep into that night.

"I'm going to have to put in a transfer request. You're the only one who can guard me at night from now on," Emmary flirted.

Finn chuckled in a rumbling baritone. "Unfortunately, love, you can't make requests like that. But I'll see what I can do."

She grinned cheekily. "Good." They pecked lips lightly, Emmary settling her head back into his chest as he lightly stroked her arm.

"I hope I was... admirable," Finn tripped over the word awkwardly. "When I was growing up in the Stormtrooper Corps, we were taught abstinence, so I've never..."

She kissed him deeply to shut him up. "You were amazing," she murmured. "I've never made such incredible love before."

His eyes dimmed a little bit. "Oh. So you've been with other...?"

Emmary's own expression faltered, and she turned her face away, almost as if she was ashamed. "When I was with the Knights... I was passed around. Not because I didn't want it, but... six lusting men and one woman... it got kind of lonely. Everyone had needs, and so..."

Finn gazed at her, the trials that this amazing girl had gone through never ceasing to amaze him. He had only ever met a few other woman who were truly strong in the purest sense - Rose. Rey.

"Did... Kylo ever...?" He felt the need to ask, although he feared the answer. Depending on what it was, he didn't want to have to keep a secret from Rey, even if it was to protect his best friend.

To his relief, Emmary shook her head. "No. He was the only one I've... never been with." She shrugged. "He did seem oddly fixated with the Jedi on that catwalk, back on Mustafar."

Finn bit his lip to keep silent, uncertain if he should be saying anything about his best friend's love life. "Well, Rey has never seen a cause she didn't believe in. When we first met, she kept telling me we had to get BB8 to the Resistance base. I was so awed by her strength, I felt I had little choice but to go along..."

Emmary oddly stiffened at this. Finn glanced down at her, sensing her emotions course through the Force. When he made a determination as to what those emotions were, he couldn't help but crack a smile, amused. "You're _jealous_!"

She frowned adorably. "Should I be? Is she someone I have to worry about?"

He pecked her lips insistently, grinning dopily. "Never. Rey's the closest thing I have to a baby sister."

She eyed him, skeptical. "You've never thought about her as anything else?"

Finn paused. "I did... once. A long time ago. But she didn't feel the same, and we talked through it." He shrugged. "There's nothing you need feel threatened by, Emmy."

Emmary cracked a smile, pleased. "Em, Emmy - I'm going to have to find a pet name for you."

"Rey calls me Finny," Finn offered up. Again, his lover stiffened, and Finn couldn't resist kissing her again to calm her. "And you two are the only ones who are allowed to call me that. Just don't tell Poe."

She smirked. "OK, Trooper."

Finn chortled. "That, too. I could go for that. It's better than Traitor."

The couple kissed in bed for the rest of the night.


	22. Catfight

**Chapter 22: Catfight**

The next morning, Rey met Kaydel Connix and Beaumont Kin for breakfast. Settling herself on the bench across from them, she glanced further down the long table to see Poe cuddled up with Zorri. The Jedi's and pilot's eyes happened to meet and she nodded curtly. Neither of her meal mates appeared to notice.

"Just come from seeing Ben?" Connix asked conversationally.

"Mmm-hmm," Rey nodded, biting into a roll.

Connix grinned impishly. "Did you guys spend the whole time making out?"

She nearly choked on the roll, flushing furiously. "Kaydel!" The Lieutenant just giggled.

"Enjoy it while you can," Beaumont gambled. "Poe'll get around to lopping off his head soon enough."

Rey glowered at him. "We'll see, Kin. And no, I don't think he will, if he knows what's good for him."

"Wanna bet credits on that?" the side-burned scholar challenged.

She flung another roll at his head. "You two are no fun! At least Finn is a laugh..." Rey partially stood up. "Where is he, anyway?"

"I saw him going back to his rooms at sunrise," Beaumont informed helpfully. "He was guarding that Tazla girl all night."

"That's not all he was doing," Kaydel sing-songed.

Rey's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Well:" Kaydel began dramatically. "Zorri told Klaud, who told Wedge who told me that that Tazla rode him ragged last night!" When Rey just stared back at her blankly, the Lieutenant huffed, "Oh for Force's sake, Rey! For an allegedly married woman, you really are too innocent! She fucked Finn all night!"

Rey's jaw dropped. " _My_ Finn? My _Finny_?"

"No, the Emperor's Finny. Of course your Finny!" Connix snapped. "And he wasn't complaining, neither!"

Rey leaned back in a daze. Tazla... having sex with her best friend? _My Finny is in love?_ Her body swayed a little. Once her thoughts calmed, however, Rey stood from the table abruptly.

"Excuse me." And she stormed from the mess hall.

* * *

When Rey arrived at the medical ward, prowling towards the hospital room holding Tazla Ren, she found a portly colleague named Jenkins posted guard just inside the front door.

"Leave!" she snapped at him shortly. "I need to speak to the prisoner!" He dithered quickly to obey.

Tazla Ren was sitting up in bed, reading a book all about the planet Ithor. When she raised her eyes over the pages, the Knight of Ren dropped the text in shock.

"Jedi - Rey," she fumbled. "What are you...?"

"Are you in love with my best friend?" Rey demanded.

Tazla just blinked. "I... I don't... What...?"

"Answer the kriffing question!" Rey nearly screamed. "You were going down on him all night, or so I hear!"

Tazla cocked an eyebrow. "And that really isn't any of your business. I don't ask about who you fuck - not like I need to. You're married to my old Master, as I understand it."

Rey glowered. "I should have left you to _die_ on Mustafar!" She was thrilled when Tazla noticeably flinched at this. But the Knight of Ren gave as good as she got.

"Why didn't you?"

Rey's anger faltered for just a moment. "I... I don't know," she finally huffed exasperatedly, lamely. "I was feeling charitable. I probably wouldn't have been, if I had known you would be _using_ Finn!"

"How _dare_ you!" Tazla leapt off of the hospital cot. "I would never use him!" Her eyes filled with tears. "He's been so kind to me... and I know I don't deserve it, but... he understands what it's like to switch sides..."

"Have _you_?" Rey demanded. "You had better the hell really care about him, _Tazla Ren_ , because if you don't... I'll... I'll..."

"You'll what?" Tazla challenged.

Rey drew herself up to her full height. "I'll skewer you again. And this time, I won't even think about saving your skin!"

Tazla gawped. "Are you _threatening_ me?"

"I'll do whatever I have to in order to protect my best friend! There's only one man in this entire universe who I love even more deeply than Finny, and that's my husband! If you love Finn just as much, you won't even think about coming within a mile of breaking his heart!" And she stormed away, leaving Tazla standing there in her hospital gown.


	23. Detenté

**Chapter 23: Detenté**

Finn bounded into his midday guard shift, still high off the night of lovemaking he had experienced with Emmary.

"Good morning, my beautiful Knight!" he crowed, dropping a kiss to her lips in greeting. Emmary returned it softly.

"Hi," she murmured, her voice deflated as she sank down onto the edge of the bed, fiddling with the hem of her hospital gown.

Finn frowned. "What's wrong?" His eyes widened. "This doesn't have anything to do with how I was last night, is...?"

"No, no!" Emmary yelped, smiling weakly. "You were amazing, really! I just..." She took a breath. "Rey came barging into my room this morning."

Finn didn't know whether to frown or smirk at that, even as his insides clenched. "Barging? Rey doesn't really _barge_ anywhere..."

Emmary let out a strained laugh. "She did today! She unloaded on me, yelling at me that I was using you..." Her teeth clenched. "I've never been so affronted, I -"

" _What_?" Finn's voice had grown deadly cold. Emmary snapped her eyes up to his, panicked.

"I would never use you, Finny..." She flew to him, caressing him, kissing him. "I... I love you!" She nearly drew both hands to her mouth in astonishment that she had said those three little words to him.

Finn's eyes were dark as coal. But his tone was crippling with affection when he responded, "I know."

She gazed at him, concerned over the anger swirling around his aura.

"Finny...?"

Her voice died in her throat as Finn suddenly grabbed her and kissed her so thoroughly, her lips became bruised. When he yanked away at last, Emmary looked scandalized.

"Stay here," he ordered shortly. "I'll be back as soon as I can!" And he sprinted from her room.

* * *

Finn came upon Rey working with Chewie on the _Falcon_. Glancing up, her greeting smile quickly melted away as he bore down on her.

"Finn, what?..."

"'Scuse us, Chewie." And grabbing her by the arm, Finn hauled Rey none-to-gently down into a hidden smuggler's corridor on board.

"Finn, ow! You're hurting me!"

He ignored her. Slamming the false wall into place and releasing Rey's arm, he rounded on her.

"What did you say to Emmary?"

Rey frowned. "Emmary? Who's Emmary?"

"Tazla Ren - her real _name_ , if you even bothered to think about her as a person, which you didn't!" Finn spat through his teeth. "I dropped by for my guard shift this afternoon and she's nearly in tears telling me how you lit into her -"

"Because she's _screwing_ you!" Rey cried. "And not just in her bed!"

Finn stilled. "That is _none_ of your business!" he hissed. "Do I ask you how Ben satisfies you in the sack?"

Rey's eyes bulged. "There's no need to be vulgar..."

"And, actually, while we're on the subject of Ben... I accepted him, you know? I accepted your relationship with him -"

"It took you a hell of a long while!" Rey snorted. "And only after pistol-whipping me within an inch of my life!"

He squirmed at the low blow. "That was out of line."

"Bull," she scoffed. Finn blinked back hot tears.

"I thought we had put that behind us. You forgave me! And this is how you repay me?"

"I'm trying to _protect_ you!" Rey cried. "That slut is going to break your heart, and-"

SMACK!

He slapped her so fast and so hard, Rey almost missed it, her own hand flying to her stinging cheek. Finn's face was twisted murderously.

"Don't you _ever_... call her that again," he growled, his voice seated down in his throat so low, he nearly coughed.

Rey glared at him, tears streaming. "Well... I'm just glad I didn't marry you. Does _Emmary_ know she'd be getting involved with a wife beater?"

Finn's eyes nearly popped. "I would _never_ hit her!"

"You don't seem to have a problem hitting me! Are we keeping count, _Finny_? That's twice now!"

Finn staggered back as if she had shot him with a blaster, and for the first time, it seemed to dawn on him what he had just done. Rey blinked back more tears, her cheek turning an angry red.

"I'm telling Ben... He's going to eat your liver!" And she wriggled past him out of the smuggler's hold.

"Go right ahead! Your hubby doesn't scare me!" Finn bellowed at her back.

"FUCK YOU!" Rey screeched over her shoulder.

* * *

He drifted back to Emmary's room wracked with guilt. Being with her, hearing her gentle voice soothed him more than anything else ever could, and Finn wasted no time in signing up to take on the night shift for guard duty. Not only was this to spend more time with the love of his life, but it was also done to avoid facing the other most important woman in his life.

Emmary asked him what happened, of course. As much as it ate at him, Finn had never lied to her before, and he wasn't about to start now. She seemed stunned that he would lose his temper like that, but also heartened that he was already feeling so overcome with remorse.

"My God, I'm a monster, Em!" Finn moaned, burying his head in his hands. "I nearly killed her the first time I saw her and Ben kissing, and our friendship barely recovered from that! And now this..." He snapped his gaze up to her, eyes wild. "You know that I would never, _never_ hit you, right? It's _abhorrent_! It's obscene!"

Emmary slowly ran her thumb over his knuckles. Kissed his fingers. "I know. Rey's not my favorite person either right now, but I know what she means to you. You have to fix this _now_ and only hope you didn't squander your last chance." She eyed him pointedly.

A knock at the door made them both jump. Finn froze in utter terror when he saw Rey, looking unsure if she should step into the room. The color in her left cheek had faded to a salmon pink, but the outline of Finn's handprint was clearly visible.

"... Can I come in?"

Looking at each other, Finn and Emmary both nodded. Gliding into the room, Rey pulled up a chair, seating herself quite close.

"I talked with Ben today. I learned quite a bit about our little Knight of Ren here and... Emmary..." She fixed the other woman with a broken stare. "I owe you a heartfelt apology. I let my protectiveness over Finn ground me in some preconceived notions about you, and that was ignorant. I want you to know that..." she breathed deeply. "That I don't regret saving your life on Mustafar that day. The Force was telling me in that moment that it wasn't done with you yet... and now I think I know why." She glanced between Finn and Emmary's clasped hands. "Furthermore, if there ever comes a day when you wish to marry Finn... you have my deepest blessing."

Emmary blinked back tears. "Thank you, Rey. And thank you... for saving my life."

Rey grinned at her. "I've never had a sister before." The Jedi turned to Finn slowly. "As for you..."

But before she could say anything further, Finn was falling to his knees at her feet. Clutching at her white robes, he tore his blaster from its holster and offered it up to her. "Rey... you'll never forgive me, I know, so... Do it. Take your revenge. It's no less than what I deserve."

For a long, on-edge moment, Rey stood still. Fingers closing over the cool metal of the blaster, she turned it over in her hand and examined it. And then...

She tossed it aside. Sinking to her knees, she tipped up Finn's chin with her finger.

"Revenge is not the Jedi way. But forgiveness is. You and I... we've come too far to fall apart now."

Finn broke down, weeping. Lovingly, Rey cupped his face, chastely kissing away his tears. Sobbing, Finn threw his arms around her, kissing the cheek where he had slapped her, kissing the scar from the pistol-whipping that seemed oh so long ago.

"Once again, I forgive you. Poe can't say he has the same good fortune, but that business is between me and him. However..." and she eyed him hard. "I told Ben what happened... and he wants blood."

"And he shall have it," Finn warbled. "I'll go down to the jailhouse first thing and be his punching bag for as long as he wants!"

Rey couldn't help but smile. "No. You won't settle this like men. You'll settle it like Jedi." So saying, she pulled a metal hilt from her belt and offered it to him. Eyeing her in confusion, Finn took it and ignited it. A plasma green blade greeted him.

"You're... giving me a lightsaber when I don't deserve it? After I...?"

"Ben has his," Rey said shortly. "Don't ask me how I got it to him, and hopefully, Poe won't ever realize it went missing. My advice?: sign up for guard duty at the jailhouse - you boys can keep things private. Have it out, but you are not to duel to kill. I will not be made a widow, nor will I lose my best friend and future godfather of my children! And for the love of the Maker, don't go overly wild in wounding each other - we can't add to Dr. Kalonia's workload!"

Emmary laughed nervously, her bright eyes fixed on Finn.

"Also," Rey warned. "If you ever..."

"Never!" Finn croaked, his tears gushing in a torrent and turning his face away in utter shame. "I will never, never lay a hand on you again, Rey! My God, I... I love you!"

Rey smiled. "I love you too. All is forgiven. Now go in peace."

Finn shakily set the saber down on the nightstand. "I need the restroom." Kissing Emmary's temple, then Rey's cheek, he hurried out into the hall. Once he was gone, Emmary took Rey's hand.

"Should we really be turning our significant others loose in a lightsaber duel?"

Rey just smirked. "There won't be too much harm. If I know those boys, they'll just whack at each other until they tire themselves out. Besides... I think their meeting on Starkiller Base deserves a rematch."

Emmary went white. "Do I _want_ to know?"

"I don't think so."


	24. Trials

**Chapter 24: Trials**

Finn walked into the jailhouse the next morning shaking. He knew what he had coming to him, and as much as it terrified him, he wouldn't avoid it. Unlocking Ben's jail cell, he slipped inside.

As soon as he saw him, Ben leapt to his feet, glowering.

"You... you think you can lay a hand on my wife...?!"

"Solo, we both know what we're here for, so let's get on with it," Finn stated, trying to keep the tremor out of his voice.

Ben grinned ferociously, igniting his blood-red lightsaber. "Insolent youth! Prepare to meet thy doom."

"Dark and sinister man... have at thee," Finn retorted. He ignited Luke Skywalker's green lightsaber and blocked Ben's downward swipe. Back and forth along the jail cell they pranced in a shower of sparks. Seizing onto the barbed windows, Finn swung himself away from Ben's swipe with the gracefulness of a dancer.

"Do you know how much you hurt my wife? _Do you_?!" Ben screamed.

"I'm _sorry_!" Finn yelped, tears roaring back at the horrid memory.

"You were a traitor!" Ben yelled, hacking towards Finn's knees, the ex-Stromtrooper somersaulting out of the way.

"And you were a fascistic prick!" Finn sneered, lunging into a thrust that Ben easily parried. A few more whacks at each other, and almost at the same time, both men doubled over, exhausted.

"Rematch ending in a draw - how pathetic!" Ben mourned.

"Yeah," Finn huffed through a smile. "Our girl knows us too well."

Regaining his breath first, Ben slowly straightened. He eyed Finn with an expression that was unreadable.

"Kneel."

Terrified, Finn obeyed. Hearing the hum of plasma coming to life, he stiffened, waiting for the killing blow. But he only felt the heat of the ignited kyber crystal just barely kiss his shoulders.

"Rise... Finn, Jedi Knight."

Finn slowly got to his feet, gaping in awe. Switching the blade off, Ben handed the hilt to him. "Now hide that before I get caught attempting a jailbreak, or pooching my chances at parole."

Finn scuttled both sabers inside his tunic. And just in time, too, for a few moments later, Beaumont Kin bustled in with a set of keys. He didn't look happy about it.

"You're free," the side-burned man said without fanfare, un-cuffing Ben. The ex-Supreme Leader gawked at him. "Leia and Poe have finally come to an agreement - full pardon, in light of heroic actions at the end of the war, but don't go spreading it around."

Then Beaumont looked at Finn. "Now, you get out of here and see that little lady of yours."

Finn grinned. "Come on," he told Ben, and the pair raced for the med ward. Neither one of them noticed the concerned look Beaumont sent after them.

* * *

"Emmy?" Finn called as he sprinted through the last halls leading to his love's room. "Emmary, did you hear the news? Ben's been..." Bursting in the door with Ben hot on his heels, Finn skidded to a stop at the hospital room crowded with Resistance fighters, Poe at their head. Emmary was lying on the bed, her hand clasped in Rey's. The Jedi was staring at the Commander, eyes pleading.

"Don't do this... you pardoned Ben! Can't you at least pardon her too?"

"Hey... what the hell is this?" Finn snarled.

Poe just glanced to him sadly. "She has crimes she must answer for, now that she is well enough to serve for them... I'm sorry, Finn." And he pointed a finger at Emmary. "Seize her."

"NO!" Finn dove into the middle of the crush of bodies as Emmary was forced from her bed. "Em! EMMARY!"

"FINN!" Emmary wailed, clawing for him as she was forced in ion cuffs. "Finny, help me!"

"Emmy, I'll get you out, sweetheart! I promise!" Finn was thrashing wildly to get to her - so wildly, that Wedge Antilles could hardly hold him back. Finn could only watch helplessly as his lover was led away to the jail cell.

"Finn..." Poe was watching him regretfully. "Please understand..."

Finn glowered, and for the first time, he understood why Rey hadn't forgiven the pilot. "Yes, Poe... I _understand_ you."

Rey stood up, sending Poe a look of pure loathing. "You have no heart," she whispered.

"Rey, I can't just pardon every First Order ex-pat who happens to be in love with one of my comrades!" Poe cried. "Ben was a special case, because Leia practically busted my arm to let him go! Considering that, your lack of self-awareness is astonishing."

Rey spat at him, then flounced from the room. Sending Finn a deeply sympathetic look over her shoulder, she tugged Ben from the room before falling apart in his arms.

Finn stared around at all his allies. "I want into that jailhouse _now_ \- not tomorrow, not after breakfast - _NOW_!"

"Let him in," Poe mumbled. "She goes on trial first thing in the morning... and unfortunately, I won't be able to allow you into the courtroom."

Finn gnashed his teeth. "Perfect."

* * *

The sound of footsteps echoed ominously in the empty hall as Finn paced back and forth outside the courtroom where Emmary was being tried and dealt her fate.

"It's taking too long, Rey..." he mumbled, running his hands through his thick dreadlocks.

Seated on a bench, her hands clasped in those of her husband, Rey's smile was strained.

"I filed an amicus brief with the Court; Ben and I stayed up all night writing it..." She laid a hand on his arm. "Poe will pardon her, Finny; he just has to do this to keep up appearances..." She glanced to Ben. "Right?"

Ben grimaced. "I don't know, sweetheart. Dameron's always seemed like a loose cannon..."

The set of double doors leading into the courtroom were suddenly thrown open wide and all three Jedi straightened with a jerk. Maz Kanata's sagely eyes gave away absolutely nothing as to the final decision. "We have a verdict."

Taking Rey's hand in his right and Ben's in his left, Finn strode into the courtroom with his friends flanking him. Right away, his eyes found Emmary's like a heat-seeking missile. She smiled weakly at him from the defendant table, and just seeing her beam for him made his heart flutter.

Maz joined the three Jedi in the pew, as the jury filed in. Poe read the final sentencing:

"We, the jury, find the defendant - Emmary Lizkara Sollcot, formerly known as Tazla Ren... guilty of aiding and abetting a fascistic regime. As to the charge of mass murder, we find the defendant - Emmary Lizkara Sollcot, formerly known as Tazla Ren... guilty."

Finn flinched.

"Her ship did fire on us and inadvertently kill Rosie," Rey reminded him, though it pained her.

"However," the jury foreman continued. "Multiple petitions pleading for mercy and intercession have been filed with this court, most notably by Rey Solo and Leia Organa."

Rey gasped, whirling to her husband. "Your mother filed one?"

Ben grinned proudly and gratefully. "I guess so."

"After consulting with Commander Dameron, the representatives of this court have decided to make Emmary Lizkara Sollcot's sentence... pardoned with time served."

Finn leapt out of his seat with a whoop. Vaulting over the audience partition, be bolted for the defendant table. The guard was barely finished un-cuffing Emmary and out of the way before Finn swept her up into his arms and kissed her frantically. Emmary threw her arms around him with a happy sigh and melted, kissing him back.

"Mmmmm... Force above, I love you!" Finn peppered into her lips. "Hmmm... marry me. Will... will you marry me?"

Drawing out of the kiss dreamily, Emmary gazed at him. For a moment, she played with the dreadlocks at the nape of his neck, sizing him up. She had never before thought about marriage, and yet as she stared into Finn's eyes... her very-kissed lips slowly curled into a smile.

"OK," she got out softly.

Beaming, the couple leaned in and lightly kissed again.

Gasping at the sight, Rey clutched at her husband's arm and squealed. "We're going to have a sister-in-law!"

Ben chuckled. "Wasn't aware we had a brother-in-law."

She swatted him.


	25. Now You Know

**Chapter 25: Now You Know**

Finn eyed the syringe of blue liquid pinched in Ben Solo's fingers warily.

"This isn't going to hurt, is it?"

Ben twirled the syringe between his fingers. "It shouldn't, in theory," he mused. "It is, however, supposed to restore your memories from before you were abducted."

Somehow, after some tedious research, Ben had managed to track down Finn's file from within the First Order archives stationed on the regime's capitol of Ganash. After some discussion with Poe, he had been allowed to extract all of Finn's sensitive information before the entire library was seized.

As Kylo Ren, Ben had never been directly involved with the Stormtrooper program. He had never wanted Stormtroopers in the first place, preferring clones, but Snoke had overruled him, leaving the program to Hux and Phasma's jurisdiction.

The topic of Finn's past had come up as he and Emmary were giddily making wedding plans. Long nights of pillow talk had convinced Finn that he did want to know about his family, about his homeworld. His last name... which he desperately wanted to ask Emmary to share, and that she happily agreed to take, as his wife.

He hadn't felt entirely comfortable, coming to Ben and asking if there was anything to be done, and although his Jedi ally wasn't certain, he threw himself into the task doggedly.

Ben eyed Finn hard. "Now, Finn: are you sure about this?"

Lacing his fingers through those of his beloved fiancé, Finn nodded. Ben nodded back and prepared to inject the syringe into Finn's temple. The ex-Stromtrooper jerked away.

"Wait. Did... did Jannah also agree to this?"

"Poe promised me that he would deal out these syringes to her and the other Stormtroopers, to do with what they wished. It is your own decision, Finn."

Emmary laid a gentle hand on his arm. "Sweetheart?"

Gazing into her eyes, Finn saw only support, solidarity and love. She would stand by her soon-to-be husband, no matter what. He turned back to Ben.

"Do it."

Ben nodded grimly, then prepared to inject the syringe into Finn's temple. He was almost there when -

"Wait." This time it was Emmary who spoke up with a tremble. "This... this won't fundamentally change who he is, will it? He won't forget me?"

Finn gawked at her, taking her hand and raising her knuckles to his lips. " _Forget_ you? Nearly everything good in me, everything I am, is _because_ of you!"

Emmary smiled weakly, happily allowing Finn to dip his head and kiss her. Drawing away, he finally nodded.

"OK. I'm ready now."

Ben nodded. "Hold still." He aimed the needle over Finn's temple. "Three... two... one..."

Finn squeezed his eyes shut. "I love you, Emmy."

Ben plunged the needle in and pushed.

As soon as the blue liquid was injected into Finn's bloodstream, his entire body seized up. With an agonizing cry, everything went black.

He came to a few moments later to feel a wet, warm pair of lips pressing against his. The softest hand cradling his cheek.

"Em... mary," he croaked, stirring against her.

He felt her breath tickle his face as she laughed, the sound like sweet music. "Wake up, my handsome, _brave_ Trooper..."

Opening bleary eyes, Finn slowly sat up and Emmary clambered into his lap, embracing him. A flood of memories came rushing back, and he stared at her, at Ben, at Rey who was biting her lip in concern.

"I remember everything..." he whispered. "I was... born on Mygeeto. Ice and snow everywhere..." Eyes finding Rey's, he cracked a smirk. "No wonder I never wanted to go back to Jakku! That damn planet was against all my climate sensibilities!"

Rey trilled out a laugh... or was it a sob? He couldn't tell.

Emmary was stroking his hair, kissing his face. "What else?" she crooned.

"I was taken... when I was probably half Temiri's age, maybe even younger." He blinked. "We lived on an ice farm. My last name... was Nescius."

Ben nodded slowly. "Now you know," he murmured.

Next moment, Finn felt Emmary's lips on his.

"I love you, Finn Nescius," she whispered into his lips. "And I can't _wait_ to be your wife." Slowly, she guided their intertwined hands to her flat stomach. "I want to bear your child."

Finn beamed, pecked her lips. "I want that too, love. But first we've got a wedding to complete."


	26. Weddings

**Chapter 26: Weddings**

In a jungle clearing on Ajan Kloss, Finn stood at the head of the altar in his tuxedo, nervously fiddling with his bow tie. Next to him, Ben - his Best Man - leaned over to hiss in his ear.

"Stop twitching!"

Finn couldn't, periodically glancing back towards the main hangar bay where his future wife was being kept away from him to be all beautified. "I'm not nervous," he voiced his inner thoughts out loud. "I've never wanted anything more than this moment in my entire life. It's just... I can't stand it any longer! I need to see my bride!" And he suddenly broke, sprinting up the aisle for the hangar bay.

"We got a bolter!" Ben hollered. Moving quickly, he, Poe and Beaumont Kin chased Finn back down and took him down in a flying tackle. The groom struggled, but they held fast as they hauled him to his feet.

"You boys gone crazy?" Finn wheezed.

"She'll be out here soon enough, Finn," Ben calmed him.

The groom and his boys took their places back at the aisle. Moments later, the wedding march began to play, and Rey led the way down the aisle as Matron of Honor. Connix and Zorri followed as bridesmaids, and then...

An angel descended, turning the corner.

Emmary was blushing but positively radiant as she strode up the aisle towards her future, Captain Wedge Antilles on her arm to give her away. Spying Finn, her smile became even more brilliant and she nearly ran to him. Wedge passed her off to Finn. Maz Kanata would officiate the ceremony.

"You look breathtaking," Finn whispered. "I just want to drag you into a dark corner and ravish you..."

Emmary swatted at him. "Finny!" she hissed, turning pink.

The couple passed each other the rings and exchanged vows. Upon being declared husband and wife, Finn took his bride in his arms.

"Never seen anyone so beautiful..."

Emmary smirked. "Shut up and kiss me."

They drew each other close, mouths falling open as tongues pushed through. Closing her eyes in utter contentment, Emmary threw her arms around her husband as he lifted her clean off her feet to cheers and wolf whistles.

At the reception, Emmary approached Rey. Eyes full of gratefulness and love, she pecked her new sister-in-law's cheek.

"Thank you," she choked up. "For saving me and bringing me to my Finn."

Rey beamed wetly. "Of course."

Ben took the blushing bride by the elbow. "I think there's someone else you need to see." Leading her through the crowd to the back of the jungle clearing, Emmary's eyes locked with a guest she hadn't seen before... and she lost her breath for the second time in one day, bursting into tears.

"Mama?!"

"We found her on Borao," Ben informed her. Hearing his wife's cry, Finn hurried over from the champagne bar to see what was going on.

Mrs. Solcott wrapped her daughter in the fiercest hug. "Oh, Emmary... you are the most beautiful, beautiful bride..."

Emmary hiccuped. "I'm so sorry, Mama... I'm so sorry..."

"Sssssh... None of that matters now."

Sporting a watery smile, Emmary looped her arm through Finn's. "Mama, this is Finn Nescius... my husband."

Finn regarded the old woman who was apparently now his mother-in-law. "It's an honor to meet you, ma'am. I love your daughter more than anyone."

Mrs. Solcott beckoned him forward. "Come closer, Finn Nescius."

Finn nervously obeyed and she peered at him for a long moment. "He has a good soul," she judged before whispering conspiratorially to her daughter. "And he's _handsome_ , too!"

Finn deflated in relief. "Oh, I like her."

Emmary beamed. "I knew you would!", nuzzling her face into his neck.

Watching the sight from afar, Rey waltzed in her own husband's arms.

"I've been thinking," Ben rumbled suddenly.

"Hmm?" Rey burrowed her head deeper against his chest. "What about?"

"... Will you marry me? Again?"

She lifted her head off his chest to stare at him. Finally, glowing, she stood on her tiptoes to lightly brush his lips.

"Why, Ben Solo, I thought you'd never ask me!... Yes." Grinning roguishly, he dove back in for another kiss, but she stopped him. "But I want to make sure we get it right."

* * *

The day of her wedding, Rey allowed Emmary and Connix to help her into Leia's wedding dress. Surprisingly, and to her great relief, the dress was a perfect fit, right down to the bodice. As she checked herself in the mirror, she blinked in utter shock when a figure she thought she would never see again appeared in the reflection:

"It looks better on you."

Rey spun around with a gasp to see the Force Ghost of Leia Organa beaming at her. It had been so sad to lose her, right after Finn and Emmary had returned from their honeymoon. But Leia had given her blessing wholeheartedly, before she passed. "I always wanted a daughter. Someone I could dress up and make clothes for. I just never expected I would get one through my son."

Rey beamed at her, trying to keep her emotions in check. "Thank you," she said softly.

Leia hugged her and kissed her forehead. "I'll be there. You'll see me."

At that moment, Connix re-entered the Naboo palace to announce that it was time. Rey strode down to the terrace overlooking a sun-kissed lake, where the marquee was glistening in the sunlight. Once upon a time, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker and Senator Padme Amidala – Ben's grandparents – had married in secret here. Reaching the end of the aisle created by rows of white folding chairs, Rey giggled as she took in who would be escorting her.

"Chewie..." The Wookie, with only a too-small bow tie on his body, gave her an affectionate howl and held out a furry arm to her. Rey smiled at him warmly. The father she had never known was long dead, and probably would not have cared to give her away, even if he was still alive. If Han or Luke had survived, she supposed they would have fought like brothers over who would accompany her. But in this moment, Chewie served as a fine substitute.

The wedding march played and Rey glided down the aisle, trying to match her strides to Chewie's unnaturally long ones. All the time, she kept her eyes glued to the front of the altar. Ben looked so incredibly handsome in his tuxedo, and he had kept his hair at the length she liked, combing it nicely. Finn gave her a gentle grin, standing at the former Supreme Leader's side.

When Chewie handed Rey off the Ben at the altar, he blinked at her rather rapidly. Rey smiled weakly.

"What?"

"You're wearing daisies in your hair," he beamed, giving her ornate braid a loving flick. Rey beamed and blushed.

"I know they're your favorite."

It was then that she noticed that the podium was empty. Who would officiate?

The answer would come as a shock to all. For suddenly, who should be standing there, but the Force Ghost of Luke Skywalker himself. He smiled warmly at the couple.

"Now, in my day, and in my father's time, Jedi were not allowed to marry. So, I'm just gonna wing it."

Ben leaned over to whisper in Rey's ear. "Luke Skywalker? _Winging_ it? This should be good."

Luke now gestured between each of his former pupils. "Rey, do you take my nephew to be your husband?"

Rey gazed up into Ben's eyes and beamed. "I do."

"Ben, do you take my apprentice to be your wife?"

"I do," Ben nodded, never surer about anything else in his life.

"Then by the power vested in me as a Jedi Master, I now pronounce you and husband and wife." There was a pause as nobody moved. Luke jerked his head over towards Rey, his eyes twinkling. "Well, kiss her, you nerfherder."

Ben thus swept Rey into his arms and gave her a breathless kiss as the whole marquee burst into applause. After the newlyweds broke apart, Luke gave his nephew a wink and echoed the words he had once spoken to him, and in more tragic circumstances. "See ya around, kid." And the Jedi Master disappeared.

* * *

The sunlight glistened off the Naboo lakeside castle as Rey and Ben approached. Suddenly, Ben swept Rey off her feet, so that she let out a surprised squeal. He grandly carried her inside.

"I'm nothing if not traditional," Ben smiled down at her.

"Says the man who once wanted to let the past die," Rey mused.

Ben kicked the door in with his foot. "Welcome home... Mrs. Solo."

Rey beamed and kissed him. "Say my new name again," she whispered against his lips.

Ben's smile looked like it was in danger of breaking his face. "Mrs. Solo," and every syllable dripped with bliss. He reverently deposited his bride on the bed and clambered on top of her. Kissing her again and again, he began to slowly undress her. At last, Rey's bridal gown was off, followed quickly by her undergarments. She now lay in all her glory before him.

An almost stunned Ben hesitantly reached out to touch her, as if he was afraid she might break. Or disappear entirely. "You're beautiful, you know. More than I dreamed."

Rey felt her face grow hot as she bit her lip in a frown. She glanced down at her waifish figure. Even after several months of good eating with the Resistance, there are parts of her that are still all skin-and-bones. Her breasts are not as voluptuous as they are on women of other worlds; in fact, she finds them quite flat. And the bushy rat's nest that she believes to be her womanhood... _He'll think it's ugly or it's gross._ "No, I'm not," she mumbled.

Ben lifted her chin with his finger, to make sure she looked him in the face. "You _are_ ," and his voice was filled with soft fire.

Rey's breath hitched and she gazed at him.

"I love you," Ben hissed, as if those are the only words he knows how to say. And as if to proof it, he suddenly brushed his... _manliness_ up against the inside of her thigh. "You feel that? That's me - wanting you. Loving you."

Rey was stunned by how hard his anatomy feels. She could feel it straining, even after it was free from the pants that sheathe it. "Aren't you in any pain?" she asked, concerned.

Ben laughed. "Oh, believe me, it's been worse than this." And his eyes got a wistful look. "In the weeks after Crait, I would stroke myself to images of you in my head, alone in my chambers. Then, when I would cum, I would cleanse myself and imagine it was you lapping away the juices."

Rey flushed pink, gathering the courage to voice a dirty admission of her own. "I would sometimes... touch myself. When I was living on the _Falcon_. One night, I said your name out loud - I thought I was gonna wake up the whole Resistance!"

Ben chuckled. "My naughty little scavenger," he murmured into her neck, and began to kiss the freckles there. All the while, he rubbed his throbbing erection up against her thigh. After a few moments, it seemed as though his entire body was throbbing - and Rey was distressed to discover that it was because Ben was crying.

"What's... what's wrong?" _Is he unsatisfied? Is he already bored with me?_

"I just... can't believe you're real. And here. That an angel loves a monster like me!"

Rey laughed airily, followed quickly by a gasp as he sent a love bite into her skin. "I'm no angel. And you're not a monster. You're my beautiful, beautiful Ben."

Ben looked positively delighted by this testament. "Say it again," he sighed.

"Ben..." Rey groans his name.

"More... more..."

"Ben, Ben, Ben..." she babbled.

His entire body seized up before slowly relaxing. He came. All over the inside of her thigh. Rey could scarcely believe that the mere sound of his name on her lips would make him come undone. She could feel the stickiness coating her skin.

Ben rolled off of her, to catch his breath. After a moment's silence, he asked:

"Who told you that you were not an angel?"

Rey sat up, covering her sensitive areas so that she was hugging herself. "My parents, certainly. From what I can remember, they thought I was a burden."

Ben twisted away from her suddenly, as if burned, eyes smoldering. Rey's own irises filled with concern as she watched him get up and pace the bed. "Ben...?"

"I wish I could find whatever pauper's grave they are buried in!" he suddenly spat. "I wish I could dig them up, bring them back to life, and kill them all over again! Cut them down with my lightsaber!"

Rey's gaze softened. Ah, so _that's_ what this is about. "Ben, it's over. Everything's all right..."

"No, it's not all right!" Ben shook with rage. "I don't think you understand! They had the treasure of the galaxy in their grasp and they threw it away with both hands!"

Rey shrugged. "To them, I was just a slave. Potential labor."

"And that's another thing!" Ben raised a finger, not finished. He was on a roll. "Being treated like thrash by that... what's his name? Udder Plop..."

"Unkar Plutt."

"Whatever. If I were still Supreme Leader, I would make whole star systems genuflect before you and call you their Queen."

Rey trilled out a laugh, and stared at him, eyes full of love and yet flushed by the praise he showers upon her. "I wouldn't want to be anybody's Queen, Ben..."

"And yet here you are," and Ben knelt beside the bed. "With a man on his knees for the woman he loves. Queen over me and my heart. And long may you reign! I am your humble servant." He submitted before her.

Rey grinned widely. All right, she'll play along. As regally as she could manage, she extended her hand, which Ben seized and reverently kissed.

"Very well, young man. I order you to make love to me!"

Ben eagerly clambered back on top of her, only this time, to truly make their bodies one. "Let me dwell inside of you," he murmured through a kiss to Rey's lips. "Please."

Rey showed him mercy, and nodded. Gently, inch by inch, Ben pushed into her. Tears pricked at Rey's eyes from the pain, and she kissed Ben deeply to help herself through it.

Ben was gentle as he attended to her, thrusting at a steady pace that was just as consistent in each increase of speed. Rey clawed at his back, her eyes wide as saucers at the pleasure building up inside of her.

"Ben... I LOVE YOU!" she screamed as she tightened around him.

"Fuck, Rey! I love you! So much!" And Ben quickly followed, emptying himself within her.

He remained within her for a moment before drawing out and sitting on the edge of the bed. Rey leaned herself against the mountain of pillows once more, basked in utter contentment.

Until she realized... Oh Force...

"You don't think your... family is watching us?" She meant the ghosts of the Skywalkers and Solos in the Netherworld of the Force.

Ben shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not."

"Oh God..." and Rey buried her face in her hands, mortified, her face permanently flushed.

"Hey," Ben chuckled, reaching over to rub her arms. "Han Solo... _Dad_ is probably the only one who might not give us any privacy." The comment didn't help, and Rey groaned at the thought of her father-in-law's spirit watching her have sex with his son.

"And what about... Luke?" she thought of the man who is now her uncle by marriage. "He blew apart an entire stone hut when he caught us just holding hands!"

"Yeah, old Skywalker never knew how to hang onto his Bantha cheese and crackers," Ben mused. "But, honestly, I think he would have struck me down by now."

* * *

It was many hours later. The sun was beginning to set over the ocean beyond. Ben was still sitting on the edge of the bed, watching the tide. Rey was lounging on the covers like a cat, still blissfully naked. She stroked the down comforter as she lost herself in her thoughts.

"Ben? Can you tell me what happened that night at the Temple?"

She watched him stiffen; felt the walls of his mind close just slightly, but not all the way, through their Bond. "I thought I told you everything you needed to know. And Sky... Uncle Luke." Rey only slightly registered that this is the first time she has ever heard him speak his uncle's first name.

"I... I need to know," she pleaded. "What did you feel?"

He was deathly silent for a moment. Then:

"Scared. Betrayed. Bitter. Resigned. I knew they all thought I was a burden. That I was dangerous. I could see it in the eyes of the Padawans I cut down. In Luke's eyes as he tried to murder me in my sleep. My parents. And yet... that night was peaceful. I'll never forget how the stars looked. I gazed up into the sky... I could see every last one of them twinkling. I could even see one of the neighboring planets of Ahch-To, and it was so... _beautiful_ , Rey. The flames... from the Temple... just made them shine all the brighter. I couldn't tell where space ended and the earth began."

Rey gently scooted closer, rubbing a hand along Ben's arm as she processed the memories he had just shared. Probing into the Bond, she could see it all just as he has described. She glanced up into his face and smiled gently.

"I love you," she said simply.

He beamed at her adoringly. "I know."


	27. Twin Suns

**Chapter 27: Twin Suns**

Ben grunted against the unrelenting Tatooine heat as he blocked a diagonal slash from Temiri. The former Supreme Leader and his 14-year-old Padawan apprentice dueled back and forth along the grainy and rough sands. Leaning against a vaporator, Finn Nescius watched the proceedings with a critical eye.

"Keep your feet firmly planted, Temiri!" he called.

Temiri shifted his stance, holding his ground against Ben's incoming barrage. "Yes, Master."

Gliding out of the Lars homestead, Rey Solo smiled with tender affection at the sight, caressing her slight baby bump. She was only about ten weeks along with her and Ben's first child - a girl - and already she was anticipating motherhood with breathless delight. Hearing a sound in the entryway behind her, she turned, her eyes bugging out with concern.

"Emmy, no..." she admonished. "Don't over-exert yourself..."

"I'm fine, Jedi girl," Emmary growled without any bite, huffing and puffing as she too climbed the sanded steps onto flat desert ground, her own belly out to her feet. She was hugely pregnant, with the due date only a handful of weeks away. Rey thought she looked amazing. The ex-Knight of Ren glowed.

"Triplets!" Rey rested a hand on Emmary's swelling belly. "Now you have to tell me how he is in bed! What's his secret?"

"How about we _don't_ do that?" Seeing his wife, Finn beamed in absolute awe and sauntered over to her. Thick arms encircling her waist, he kissed her thoroughly, letting his hands take liberties as they felt up her beautiful arse.

"Hi," he rumbled.

Emmary beamed. "Hey yourself."

"How are they?" His hands ghosted over the beautifully rounded curves of her stomach.

"Owen, Cassian and Rose are just fine." Feeling a flurry of kicks, Emmary smiled. "They love hearing their Daddy."

Finn nuzzled his nose into her hair. "You're so beautiful..." His voice was on fire.

Pushing back against his chest, Emmary peered up into his face and smirked, amused. "You really can't stop touching me, can you?"

"Never," her husband hissed, capturing her lips again. "I know I couldn't make it back to our place cross the Jundland Wastes. I just want to drag you back into the hut and have my way with you..."

Emmary cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, do you now? Well, how about this, _Trooper Boy_?" And draping her arms lazily about his neck, she began fervently whispering into his ear, her grin positively wicked. With every subsequent word she hissed, Finn's face grew more and more red. His wife finally released him, and with an even deeper smirk, sauntered back into the Solos' hut, swishing her hips seductively as she waddled. Finn gazed after her with a goofy grin on his face.

Rey sidled up to her best friend with a knowing smirk. "So, what did she say?"

"Bitch, I ain't telling you," Finn quipped. She barked out a laugh, shaking her head as she watched him practically sprint into her hut. Ben wandered up, stealing an arm around his wife.

"Don't worry, love. I believe she said, and I quote: ' _I'm going to bounce up and down on you while dangling my tits in your face. And then I'm going to suck your cock until you cum deep in my mouth because I absolutely adore having black dick. And then you're going to fuck me so our babies know how much Daddy pleases Mommy._ ' Unquote."

Rey winced. "Charming."

"I think the word you're looking for is kinky," Ben gave her a saucy wink before pulling her into him for a kiss.

"Ew, guys! Stop! You're gross!" Temiri called.

"Back to Form III with you, my young apprentice," Ben tossed over his shoulder.

Laughing, Rey rested her head on her husband's chest as they gazed out at the twin suns of Tatooine beginning their descent from the skies. She had her family here with her, as they began to reintroduce the Jedi Order - a balanced one - to the galaxy. She was in the arms of the man she loved and was carrying his baby. As she gazed out at the beautiful sunsets, Rey Solo knew she would never be alone or sad again.


End file.
